Mt Yengo, Australia’s First Indigenous-Owned Wine Label, Continues Its Rise

Mount Yengo towers above Yengo National Park, a World Heritage-listed pocket of New South Wales’s Lower Hunter region comprising a million hectares of eucalyptus and rugged terrain. For the Wonnarua, Darkinjung, Awabakal and Worimi people, the peak is sacred – the place where the spirit Baiame is said to have returned to the sky after shaping the region’s mountains, rivers, lakes and caves.

The owners of wine label Mt Yengo plan to open a cellar door and culture centre nearby, where guests can join tours and workshops led by the Wonnarua community. “It’s the dream,” says co-owner Wayne Quilliam, a Palawa man and one of Australia’s leading Aboriginal multimedia artists and cultural advisers. “But it’s definitely not a pipe dream.”

Mt Yengo is part of a growing cohort of Indigenous-owned alcohol brands in Australia, a group that includes South Australia’s Munda Wines and Sunshine Coast beer brand Jarrah Boy. It works with growers and vineyards around the country – including Yalumba in the Barossa Valley – to produce its wines, and showcases work from Indigenous artists on its labels.

In January the brand reported a tenfold surge in growth after securing national distribution in Coles and Carnival Cruise ships. Nigella Lawson chose Mt Yengo’s sparkling variety for her sold-out dinner series at Vivid Sydney in June. Now the brand has its sights set on America and Europe.

But Mt Yengo’s ascent hasn’t been without pitfalls. Ben Hansberry – who co-owns the brand with Quilliam and Kamilaroi/Gidabil man, Gary Green – says the brand had to axe a social media campaign earlier this year due to “horrendous racism” playing out in the comments. “We were muting stuff every two minutes,” Hansberry tells Broadsheet. “We weren’t prepared for the extent and the relentlessness of it.”

In trying to make sense of the vitriol, Hansberry points to the comparable racism experienced by professional sportspeople and a “stigma with Indigenous people being successful”. He also cites the stereotype surrounding First Nations people and alcohol abuse.

“It’s public knowledge that some of our communities have difficulty with alcohol, but we’re not selling to our own people,” says Quilliam, who works in some of the country’s most remote communities and was “initially concerned” with the association before he joined Mt Yengo in 2018.

Mt Yengo has likely done more to “close the gap” than any multinational alcohol brand. Hansberry says it’s donated around $50,000 as part of its commitment so far: 12.5 cents from every bottle sale is given to the National Indigenous Culinary Institute, a charity that provides training and mentorship to young Indigenous chefs at top Australian restaurants including Rockpool, Aria and Movida.

A further 12.5 cent royalty is given to the artists it showcases. Some of these works are by Quilliam himself, and are inspired by his time on Country. His series for Mt Yengo’s Adelaide Hills range, Lowanna, was inspired by “our connection to the land through women”.

“I gather stories. I listen to the language. I think about what it means. That’s where my art comes from,” he says. “It’s all about the connection to land and Country, and in particular, the diversity of our people.

“All these stories that are shared with me, from the Torres Strait to Tasmania, we’re using that as a bit of a bridge to introduce not only Australians, but the world, to our culture in an inclusive way. We’re seeing this as storytelling through a different medium.”

mtyengowines.com.au