The People You Meet: Maryann Egan

Wine and the Egan family have paired nicely ever since the early 1960s, when the first grapes grew on the Wantirna Estate, nestled among the Yarra Valley’s vast, green fields outside of Melbourne.

Nowadays, Maryann Egan does the same work her parents started. She briskly walks through the vineyard, surveying a row of vines recently picked clean of grapes. Oscar, her tail-thumping black lab, follows.

Every year, the clock ticks on. Prune the branches, plant the grapes, bottle the fermented stuff from last year, harvest the grapes, repeat.

“You finish one season and the leaves are already dropping,” Maryann said. “We’ll be pruning in about three or four weeks and you start thinking about the next year.”

Of course, the clock ticks differently than it did when Maryann’s father ran things. The growing season comes a day quicker every year thanks to climate change. Maryann plants her grapes a month earlier than she did when she entered the business out of university.

More grapes fall victim each season, shriveled by the punishing Australian sunlight before they’re ripe.

“It can mean that you lose some of the lovely, delicate flavors of the wine.”

This is why Maryann pays attention to every detail of her bounty. She knows which grapes get the most sunlight and how to funnel more on those that need it. Crack open a bottle of Wantirna wine and she’ll tell you what the weather was like that year just by taste.

“It’s making sure you look after every detail…You can take off that top two, three, five percent of quality just from not doing the little jobs.”

The last bit of quality. That’s what Maryann has to locate among the vines. It’s why a little vineyard from 50 years ago still bears fruit despite an atmosphere of uncertainty.