Tim Shand is not one to follow the flock. In a world where yes-men get ahead and homogeneity wins widespread acceptance, his contrarian nature hasn’t always gone down well. But an impulse to challenge conventional wisdom and see through mediocrity has made him stand out from the crowd in the long run—and earn a shot at fulfilling a prodigious potential.

I got to know Tim well when he was chief winemaker at Punt Road in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Among notable achievements there, he won the highly prestigious Trevor Mast trophy for best Shiraz at Melbourne Royal Wine Awards for a grape supposedly grown in the wrong place on a workmanlike vineyard. He also turned the estate’s second label, Airlie Bank, from a routine quaffer line into a range of great-value, characterful, overdelivering wines that would get wine-buyers properly excited. In this conversation, we talk about how.

Another storied wine was the 2012 Giant Steps Applejack Pinot Noir, which came within a whisker (there wasn’t quite enough produced to qualify… or was there?!) of being the first Pinot Noir to snag Australia’s most famous wine trophy, the Jimmy Watson. It was named best Pinot but missed out on the Jimmy to a Pinot it had bested in its own class. Go figure. Tim put that wine together while working as 2iC to Steve Flamsteed, my guest on episode 11. Tim references the Innocent Bystander cellar door and brand (now owned by Brown Brothers) that was the little sibling to Giant Steps (now owned by Jackson Family Estates), a single-vineyard Yarra project led by serial drinks entrepreneur Phil Sexton. Tim also mentions Dave Mackintosh (Arfion), Timo Mayer (more about him in this article) and Dave Bicknell of Oakridge.

Hardys is a brand of what was formerly BRL Hardy and has now been subsumed (via Constellation) into the newly created Vinarchy group. Former podcast guests Steve Flamsteed and Anna Flowerday worked at Hardys and talked about their peers. Industry legend Paul Lapsley was was chief winemaker back in the day, and other names Tim drops are Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT; read about her here), Larry Cherubino (Cherubino), Simon Osicka (Paul Osicka) Ross Pamment (Houghton), Sue Bell (Bellwether), Mark O’Callaghan (Wine Network Consulting), sparkling guru Ed Carr (House of Arras) and Pete Dillon (Handpicked, which now owns Arras). Tim spent another vintage at McWilliams in Griffith with Adrian Sparks (now chief at Mount Pleasant), Andrew Higgins and Sam Brewer.

The infamous Bordeaux chapter came about through advice from Brad Greatrix, who makes wine at English sparkling house Nyetimber with Cherie Spriggs. The late Paul Pontallier was in charge of Château Margaux at the time. Véronique Drouhin in Oregon was instrumental in making connections (Domaine Drouhin is an outpost of Burgundy producer Joseph Drouhin), including with Jeremy Seysses of Domaine Dujac, who is married to Napa-born vigneron Diana Snowden Seysses. The wine at the centre of an anecdote there is from the Monts Luisants 1er Cru vineyard in Morey-Saint-Denis in Burgundy.

Back in Margaret River, Tim was appointed chief winemaker at Voyager Estate in mid-2022. He was hired by Alexandra Burt, who represents the second generation of the Wright family to own and operate this organic-certified domaine. It was Alex who lured philosopher A. C. Grayling to Voyager Estate earlier this year; Professor Grayling was my guest on episode 10. He gets a solid mention here, as do other leading lights close to Voyager’s home: Leeuwin Estate, Xanadu and Stella Bella, whose Luminosa Chardonnay, crafted by Luke Joliffe, is referenced.

Lastly, Tim talks of catching up with Rob and Genevieve Mann of Corymbia the day we spoke. The Manns were visiting Voyager Estate with Andrew Marks of Gembrook Hill and his partner, Sophie—you can hear more about their friendship and accomplishments here.

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