Our mate Gary Mills is launching a fully functioning urban winery in the heart of Preston, in Melbourne’s inner north!
It's a huge step for one of our long-time partner wineries. Gary has always been about pushing boundaries and taking chances - this might be his biggest leap of faith to date!
Below you will find some more info from the man himself. If you'd like to support his project, (and we strongly recommend you do!) you can donate to his crowdfunding campaign at this link.
From Jamsheed:
Melbourne’s inner north is heaving with craft breweries and food-trucks and in amongst them we’re slowly chipping away at a bold new project: the Jamsheed Urban Winery.
Picture a cavernous Melbourne warehouse, steel beams, painted brick, a working winery, barrel hall and an inviting cellar door wine bar where you can sample our wines, and others from across Victoria.
This is our vision: a first of its kind in Melbourne.
At Jamsheed, we’ve been at the forefront of a new wave of Australian wineries since our launch in 2003, and now we want to bring a new experience to Melbourne’s inner north.
Our wines are often described as “terroir-driven” and minimalist but that probably means nothing to you. And that’s the point. Our vision is to demystify the winemaking process and bring you a no-holds-barred insight from fruit to glass.
Ancient writings tell the tale of Jamsheed, a Persian king who could see his kingdom in a cup of wine, and whose fondness for fresh grapes led him to store them in jars over winter, where they would inevitably ferment and be set aside as ‘poison’.
One of King Jamsheed’s harem, despairing of frequent migraines, decided to end her life by drinking from a poisoned jar but awoke to find herself miraculously cured. She informed her king who was most pleased and set about making many jars of this ‘poison’. And thus, wine was discovered.
In a similar way to how King Jamsheed ‘discovered’ wine, we want to help locals and travellers alike discover the mysteries of how wine is made, in a casual, welcoming setting, less that 20 minutes’ drive from the Melbourne CBD.
The Jamsheed Urban Winery will stock the full Jamsheed library, but will also celebrate all of Victoria’s wine regions, many of which are difficult to access. Here, visitors will be able to come to one spot to sample the state’s best.
Our grapes are sourced from vineyards across Victoria and we go out of our way to make sure the character of those places is represented in our wines. But Jamsheed has always been entrenched in Melbourne’s inner north, and now we’re shifting production from the Yarra Valley to Preston. Jamsheed is coming home to the city, and we’re bringing the cellar door with us.
But to do this, we need your help, and we’d love for you to join us on the journey.
By contributing to the Jamsheed Urban Winery project, you’ll be helping us establish something awesome, that will provide a unique experience in Melbourne’s inner north, to be enjoyed by locals and visitors for decades to come.
You can read more about the project here...