Thistledown

Giles Cooke MW and Fergal Tynan MW, with the helping hand of Peter Leske, hand-make small-batch wines that illustrate the benefits of great sites and intelligent winemaking.

They are 2 Masters of Wine, Giles is form the UK and Fergal from Ireland. They met in a bar the night before they began the first year of the Master of Wine course in 1998. Both subsequently passed the exam and eventually came to work together, founding Thistledown in 2010.

Both share a degree in history, a love of Australian wine and the cause of the underdog. Both also shared a frustration that, in many markets, Australian wine was stereotyped as big, alcoholic, and unsuited to premium restaurants. Both knew that this didn’t have to be the case and set upon a journey to create wines of elegance, detail and balance.