Chris Thomas

Chris is responsible for many highly acclaimed wines and has won trophies and numerous gold medals. Under Chris’s leadership, DOWIE DOOLE has become a red 5-star winery and in 2015 it was recognised as one of the ‘Ten Dark Horses’. 

Chris’s winemaking style is to produce elegant fruit-driven wines that encapsulate the essence of the vineyards in which they were grown and the vintage in which they were produced. In short, Chris captures each wine’s sense of place in a bottle.

Certain vineyards produce exceptional fruit, creating distinctive wines. Norm Doole's California Road Vineyard is one of those treasures, producing low-yielding, outstanding fruit. Reflecting the site's particular terroir, the wine is naturally bold, spicy and generous gaining further complexity from barrel fermentation and extended oak maturation, using the finest American Oak hogsheads.

In 2015 they purchased 35 hectares of vineyard at Tatachilla. This new vineyard adds 10 hectares of old vine grenache, planted in 1965, to the estate. In 2018 the neighboring vineyard was acquired, adding 29 hectares to the estate. This allowed to maintain a balance between the Mediterranean climate of Tatachilla and the cool sandy slopes of Blewitt Springs. 2019 saw the introduction of immersive wine experiences in their unique tasting pod that was opened - four shipping containers that have been purpose built and fitted out to showcase the wines and environment where it sits.