Chris hails from an Italian winemaking family, so caught the bug early. He’s worked at some very nice places around the traps (pick a few of the Estates listed on Langton’s Classification), so is most handy to have around the winery.

He worked Vintage 2019 with us, and proved himself to be excellently efficient so much so that we offered him the position of Winery Manager which he accepted.

Technically, Jeff is our Vineyard Foreman. Actually, he runs the place. He knows when every single grape is ready to be harvested, the condition of every single leaf, and has sometimes been found with a handful of earth in a vineyard, murmuring gently.

He grows, he harvests, he tractors, he forklifts, he bottles, he restocks, he brings us freshly butchered lamb/venison/offal/fish/gnu, freshly grown fruit and vegetables and is the keeper of our unofficial winery dog family. Jeff is all muscle – heart muscle, that is.

Brad is Jeff’s assistant and is our very own gentle giant. When we ask Brad to help us move a big heavy thing, he’ll generally pick the whole thing up, and just casually toss it to wherever you need. Okay, or you can just do it for me, Brad…….He also loves burning around on our mower – so our mowing gets done super-fast.

He prunes vines, picks fruit, assists in the winery and when things get hectic in the shipping department - he's happy to help. A true all-rounder.

David not only manages generally, but also looks after every single aspect of our wine sales, from the restaurant phoning their order through, to getting our wines safely into the shipping container, encompassing every one of our stockists from our Cellar Door to London to New York and his home country Canadia.

A talented photographer, he is also responsible for all the beautiful photographic imagery on our website and beyond – no wonder there have been two Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine covers so far. David is also a grandfather, and we’re all constantly bombarded with the cuteness of his grandchildren. They are exceptionally gorgeous, to be fair.

Annabelle is our Office Manager, Garden Guardian, and Events Co-ordinator. 

She would ideally like to spend all her time keeping our gardens looking beautiful, but we are very grateful that she allows us to use her significant and indispensable talents in many other ways, from packing and shipping wine to liaising with customers, looking after WHS, organising events, and too many other things to mention. 

Annabelle has recently become a grandmother and can confirm that grandparenthood is as wonderful as people say it is.

Rob is our Cellar Door Manager. He has come to us from years of serving beautiful wines in restaurants, and of course would much rather be here than anywhere else.

He has also worked extensively in France (as you do), and has served Clonakilla wines to wine-loving Europeans well before having started working here.

There will be no obnoxious sales speak, just a good chat with a decent bloke about great wine.

Caroline is the only Clonakilla staff member who can pronounce Viognier perfectly correctly, as she grew up in France.

She’s regularly in our cellar door on weekends, although at various times through the year, she can be seen pruning vines, harvesting fruit and various other tasks that need an intelligent, fun loving, happy person at the helm.

A recent graduate of WSET 2 course (topping the class, just so you know), we are so grateful she loves all things viney and winey, because we love having her around.

Chiara is responsible for keeping our day-to-day finances in order. So, one may assume she is a ‘boring accountant’ – not so! She is bright and bubbly, clever and kind.

Sometimes we think she’s on the phone with one of her besties, the conversation is so jolly, but she’s chasing up debts!

How on earth does one achieve that? If you’re as kind and cheerful as Chiara, that’s how. She has also lowered the office staff average age by about 10 years, so we know all the words. Send it.

Our Finance Controller, Cate is one of the least controlling personalities for such a title. She is one of our newest staff members, but honestly it feels like she’s been here for years – in a good way!

Cate has the decency to ask us financial questions in layperson’s terms; that way we know what she’s talking about and can answer appropriately.

Don’t let her niceness lull you into a false sense of security though – Cate’s extensive experience in finance-land allows her to know when some straight talkin’ is in order.

She knows the words people, and she’s not afraid to use ‘em.

Aodhan is John’s grandson, Tim’s son, Stephen’s nephew. He’s one of the most decent young chappies you will ever meet; he’s clever, funny, willing and able.

Aodhan has been a winery team member for the last few years, and has recently stepped into some sales work as well.

He is the go-to for all the deep, spiritual questions that get pondered over during vintage….look, all that fermenting grape juice vapour gets one thinking, does it not?

We also love that Aodhan lives close by and his beautiful young family visit us often.

It’s probably easier to list what Mattis doesn’t do around here really. He’s part of the winemaking team, the vineyard team, the cellar door team, and we regularly receive comments about his knowledge and friendliness from cellar door visitors, which is not at all surprising to us.

He is also capable, intelligent, generous, handsome, witty, stylish, and all the things you say to someone to butter them up (he can cook like no-one’s business and looks after our staff lunches so we need to keep him here as long as possible).