Just Grapes in a Glass
HER (& HIS) NAME
IRINA & DUDLEY
MAKES SIPS AT
INKWELL
Inkwell wines are no nonsense. Super natural in all their glory, they’re really just “grapes in a glass”. Read: ‘supernatural’ - they’re that good.
Dudley is the “all-time” forklift driver for Inkwell wines, and “PA” (his words, not ours) to his wife, Irina, who leads the label with him. She’s an impressive chick - having arrived in Australia in 2009 and working in a second language, she completed a Masters of Sciences in Viticulture before going on to work the vintages at Inkwell when completing her PhD. Oh, did we mention she’s put bubbly wine in a can? Yep, you’re f**cking welcome.
Now, you might be wondering why we spoke to Dudley, and not Irina - given we’re a platform celebrating women and all that. Well! To be frank, it warms our hearts to hear a woman’s “partner in crime” (in life, but also in creating delicious alcohol) share his view of the kick-ass woman in his life. And who better to chat to, than Irina’s husband and “PA”?!
“Our winemaking is really about respect for the vintage, for the variety and the location. That’s the most important thing; we really try to have as little influence as possible and still craft wines that we love. We don’t add anything to our wines except for a little bit of sulphur. It 100% is, what it is. Just grapes in a glass."
SIP’ER: What is your key role within Inkwell?
DUDLEY: All-time forklift driver.
SIP’ER: Did you say full-time forklift driver?
DUDLEY: No, all-time! I’m the only one that gets to drive the forklift. Forklift driving at a winery is a preeeetty big job.
SIP’ER: How did you start?
DUDLEY: I came to Australia as a hostage. I bought a vineyard and my “captor” decided she didn’t like farming. I found out I loved farming so I stayed. Then I bought an old vineyard in bad shape and became a full time vigneron, threw my phone away and for the next 3 years, rehabilitated the vineyard that was here and built new vineyards. In 2011, I met Irina - she had just finished her Masters and was about to begin her PhD. I got a PhD by osmosis.
SIP’ER: What’s been your career highlight? What wine would you pair with that moment?
DUDLEY: [turns to Irina behind him, working on her computer] Babe, what’s my career highlight? [silence] Oh, she’s got headphones in, she’s not listening.
Probably when we opened the cellar door and the hotel, after 15 years of working on our shit, no sign on the road or anything. That was probably the biggest transition point. The wine we had when we first did that, was the Tangerine Viognier. Because it was warm that time of year.
SIP’ER: I feel like it’s a very bright and vibrant drink to go with the vibe.
DUDLEY: That’s exactly right. Speaking of vibes: In the hotel, we’ve got three King luxury suites and you know in motels they always put Bibles in the rooms. We’ve got copies of the Australian Constitution. Two people a year get the joke. People are like, “why have you got the Constitution in there?”, and we’re like, “it’s about the vibe!”
SIP’ER: Well, when we come to stay, we’ll have our evening reading sorted… And then you’ll have four people who get the joke!
SIP’ER: What is the toughest part of your job that not a lot of people would know about? What do you feel like drinking after a full day of this?
DUDLEY: I think the hardest part of being a vigneron is it’s not quite dairy farming, but it’s not far off either. There’s work to do every single day. Eighteen years, I’ve never gotten to the bottom of a “to-do” list. It just re-prioritises.
SIP’ER: So, more of an everyday drink then!
DUDLEY: I’d probably have a Perfect Day Shiraz. When I get to the end of the day, I think, “oh yeah, perfect day!” We call it: Living the dream. Bless up.
SIP’ER: Which product brings the most joy and happy memories?
DUDLEY: The Black and Blue Fortified wine. The Fortified wines always seem to encapsulate things the best, because it’s the last thing we do in Vintage. It means you’re DONE. Well you’re not done, but you feel done. For a little while. That’s just a tremendous feeling after working on something for a year. That was also Irina’s first product she made. Generally, if I tell her something is a really bad idea, it works out to be a really good idea. That was her first “bad” idea.
SIP’ER: What sets your wines apart from others?
DUDLEY: Our winemaking is really about respect for the vintage, for the variety and the location. That’s the most important thing; we really try to have as little influence as possible and still craft wines that we love. We don’t add anything to our wines except for a little bit of sulphur. It 100% is, what it is. Just grapes in a glass.
SIP’ER: We love that - grapes in a glass!
DUDLEY: Until you strip away our influence, we don’t really know what those raw ingredients really look like. So we want to just play with that as much as possible.
SIP’ER: What’s the best way to consume your products? For example, we had Chrissy (Sausage Queen) say she loves to have her beers in the bath.
DUDLEY: In the bath?! Well in the hotel, we’ve got these huge baths in front of these floor to ceiling windows that look over onto the vineyard. And there’s this sub-genre of Insta photos of women taking selfies from behind their head - looking out at the sunset over the vineyard.
SIP’ER: That’ll be us when we visit.
DUDLEY: There’s a lot of wine-bathing going on around here.
But I think sunset is the best way to consume our wines. We get magnificent sunsets over here. But the place we enjoy it the most is just sitting on our little fold-up camping chairs by the shed after a day of vintage. Just on the concrete. It’s probably the ugliest place on the property.
SIP’ER: But you feel at peace? That’s all that matters.
DUDLEY: There’s just something about that space. It’s funny, because there’s no view of anything. There’s just a view of another bad shed. We always laugh about it, like it’s the only ugly place on the block, why is this such a special place?! Everywhere else has a view of something.
SIP’ER: If you had to match one of your products with yours & Irina’s personality, which would it be?
DUDLEY: [turns to Oliver Reschke, Curator of Customer Experiences]
OLIVER: [long pause] Maybe the Piece Of My Heart Grenache.
DUDLEY: Yeah, we drink a lot of Grenache. That’s our summer go-to red.
SIP’ER: And why do you think that matches your personalities?
OLIVER: It develops in the glass. The more you do with it, the better it gets.
DUDLEY: It’s earthy and has rose petals. I’m not the rose petals part, if you were wondering.