Paul Nelson `Maison Madeleine` Rose 2016 (6 x 750mL), Great Southern, WA.

Paul Nelson Winemaker . My passion for winemaking began about 25 years ago when mum and dad purchased a farm in Denmark WA, which was planted to vines in order to produce wine under their own label (Nelson Touch). The whole family was very much involved in the vineyard, and it was during these formative years that I decided to begin my studies in Viticulture and Winemaking.After university I hopped between northern and southern hemispheres making wine for various overseas wineries, both large and small. This provided me with valuable experience with many different varieties and styles of wine, as well as an array of winemaking techniques. This was all influencial in building my strongly held belief that fine wines should be crafted as to be reflective of regionality.

After 15 vintages, 8 countries, and meeting my wife, we decided it was time to head back to Oz and put all of that experience into practice. Setting up our own wine label has always been our goal, and in 2009 we made the first wine under the Paul Nelson label.

I believe certain grapes should only be grown and made from regions that best showcase the variety, and with that in mind I prefer to personally select fruit from these regions.The fun part of winemaking involves much procrastination, philosophy and discussions with Bianca! I have also embarked on the Master of Wine course which has given me an even broader scope of what wine really means, and how it should be appreciated.

Bianca Nelson Sales & Marketing.  Paul and I met in 2006, when he was making wine in my home country of South Africa. We made the move to Australia in 2008, to start our life here and start making wines under our own label. Paul has taught me everything I know about the wines of the world; how to taste them, how to appreciate them, and mostly importantly how to just enjoy drinking them. Our wine label is a product of his talented winemaking abilities and my inquisitive enthusiasm. It can be a tough industry to be in, with respect and acknowledgment hard earned, but at the end of the day we simply enjoy making wines that we want to be drinking.

I get to put on my boots and help out in the cellar occasionally, but for me the things I love most are our endless late night discussions about wine or our weekend trials of official wine industry tastings. It seems that there is always something new to discover in every glass, and it's this continual transformation that keeps my interest piqued.

Every great event in my adult life thus far, has been marked in my memory with a bottle of champagne or a great bottle of wine. It’s one of life’s most long-lived and reliable pleasures- and as Len Evans said - life is too short to drink a bad one.