"Hamish Maguire knows a thing or two about wine. As a child, he was practically raised amongst the vineyards by his step-father, Shottesbrooke founder, Nick Holmes.

A self-described ‘outdoorsy lad' with a keen love of surfing, fishing and running, Hamish (or Hammer to his mates) always knew he wanted a job working outside in the elements.

Growing up in McLaren Vale, Hamish didn't fully appreciate what his home town offered or find his path, until a stint of travelling in his twenties. Working in wineries and vineyards in both France and Spain solidified his passion for the beauty and romance of winemaking as well as some of the finer, more technical elements of the job.

The lifestyle of McLaren Vale beckoned him home however and upon his return, Hamish settled back into working life at Shottesbrooke, where he is now the Winemaker and General Manager. Despite leading the business into a new era following a recent rebrand, you'll still find Hammer slipping away from the lab whenever the surf is up.

For the future of the vineyard, we are always looking for opportunity, whether to invest in a great patch of ground, to look at a new variety to plant or at some stage to try and make a return..The wine idustry requires a heap of capital investment and the returns are tough. We need to balance this against the great lifestyle we enjoy to make sure we will be here in the future.

Naked gives me the opportunity to worry about wine/vines and all the good things rather than accountants/forecasts and cashflows… pretty frickin simple actually When asked what makes his wines so special, Hamish replied 'It's Mclaren Vale, the grapes do most of the work themselves, we just help them manage the process'."