He is one of the most awarded and applauded winemakers in Australia but at heart Mike Hayes is a Stanthorpe boy and is happy to be back working fulltime in the area he loves and where he began his extraordinary odyssey in the world of winemaking.
Mike followed his parents into the industry starting as a 15-year-old on a chipping hoe in a vineyard just up the road from his home on the rich Granitebelt soils. He has now been working as wine industry professional for 40 years, working in 16 win regions, four states and two countries.
He is currently one of Queensland’s leading wine makers, with his contribution recognized in 2014 with the Samuel Bassett Award for “A significant contribution by an individual to the Queensland Wine Industry.”
Up until recently he has been dividing his time between the Granite Belt and Sirromet in Brisbane where he was director of Viticulture and Chief Winemaker.
Now he’s back he won’t be sitting on his laurels with plenty of new challenges awaiting him including conducting a “Philosophy of Wine Training” at the beautiful Balancing Heart Vineyard where he is winemaker, taking a detailed vineyard walk showcasing 250 million years of soil history and then guiding participants through a philosophical taste evaluation of their wines.
He’s also planning to bring out his own label of five wines (including four Italian varieties you may never have heard of) for the first time.
“I had a contract for three years with Sirromet and my three years is now up and I decided not to renew it, I miss my Granite Belt, I miss my home town,” Mike said.
“Living between both places was really quite difficult and I’m on the wrong side of 50 for that. Mainly the travel was getting to me but also we’re going to be opening up our own label at the end of the year. “My wife Andrea, who is my business partner in our consultancy business Vine to Wine Vineyard advisory Service, and I are bringing our own label out. We will be releasing five wines at the beginning of December this year.”
The name is being kept under-wraps for now but expect an announcement in due course.
“I have been very very fortunate, I’ve enjoyed being employed in the thing I loved,” he said of his long career.
“In the early days it was a bit difficult, you’d have to pull beers, go and pick fruit because there wasn’t a lot of work in the industry in the very early days. It was very seasonal like the winter you had seasonal pruning and then of course the summer pruning in the summer season. But I did an array of jobs, I was never afraid to have a crack at things – everything from a brickies laborer to pulling beers in pubs to fill in time. But over the past 20-30 years it’s been quite a full time occupation. My consulting business has been going now for 26 years and we set over more than 70 vineyards in the 90s and 2000s. Right from South Burnett/North Burnett, Gold Coast, Toowoomba, out West, Granite Belt, NSW.
“I’ve had a bit of success with the company and I always thought that if I could get seven years out of it I would have been happy but we’ve just celebrated our 26th so it’s going quite well.”
In 2012 he was awarded a Churchill fellowship to look at the autochthonous of Europe.
“Autochthonous means sprung from the earth or indigenous to the area,” he said.
“It was a climate change view to have a look at all the varieties over there that were handling hotter and wetter conditions. So I went through 50 wine regions and looked over 600 varieties of grape vines. On my return I was the architect of the vineyard of the future project at the Queensland College of wine tourism which is where we have 80 varieties – all DNA tested, virus tested and clonal selected in a small plantation to enable us to source budding and growing material in the future as the climate varies.”
He was named Australian Winemaker of the year in 2017, has been Qld winemaker of the year twice and vinoculturist of the year once.
Returning to the area he has taken up consultancy work with Tobin’s and Balancing Heart Wines and there is another person who has just bought a vineyard who he will be working with to design a winery and vineyard as well.
“Apart from that I’m still doing some lecturing over at the college and working on my doctoral professional studies as well,” Mike said.
“There is never a dull moment but it’s great to be back. Not that I really left because I was three days a week here and three-four days a week down in Brisbane but being back permanently……….I’ve been out pruning and doing some remedial work because of the dieback from some of the grapevines due to the drought. We’re cutting back and restarting them, I’m absolutely loving it, it’s freezing but it’s great to be out there and great to be amongst it and getting your feet on the Granite Belt Soils again!”
So what is his favourite variety of wine?
“My favourite variety undoubtable has the words – grown on the Granite Belt,” he laughed.
