Boomtown Winery Co-op

Boomtown Winemakers Co-op is the joint project of Tim Sproal of Minim Wines and Pat Underwood of Little Reddie. Here the lads make wines for their own labels and come together to create Boomtown drops.

They both started out tinkering with grapes in other people’s spaces for home consumption, but decided to go in together and open a community-driven winery in April 2016. Now other first-time winemakers use the space, and there’s a distinct sense of freedom and experimentation in the air.

Sproal and Underwood have tracked down some of the area’s great farmers to work with in growing grapes to make their great grape juice. They source fruit from 90 kilometres north at Colbinabbin, to 25 kilometres south at Malmsbury to create both blends and single-estate wines.

The winemakers have different tastes, but share more common ground when it comes to records and food. During the warmer months, the space becomes a bar on Friday evenings, serving wine, toasties and housemade pickles, with either a local band on tunes or the record player cranked up to full volume.