Craig Stansborough

Senior Winemaker, Grant Burge Wines

SPECIAL GUEST AT THE BUTCHERS GRILL DEGUSTATION DINNER (28 MAY 09)

Born in Gawler, on the edge of the Barossa Valley, Craig grew up with the wine industry around him. He started as Cellarhand with B Seppelt & Son in 1983, firstly at Chateau Tanunda and then later at Seppeltsfield.

Craig joined Grant Burge Wines in 1993 as Cellar Manager and was soon promoted to Assistant Winemaker in 1994, Winemaker in 1995 and Senior Winemaker in 1997, with his meteoric rise within the company being due to Craig’s enormous talents, leadership, inquisitive mind, and his unrelenting passion for winemaking.

He has a strong working relationship with Grant, and together they produce some of Australia’s leading wines, such as flagship wines Meshach and Shadrach. Over the years, Craig has also dealt with the challenges of white wine making and overseen the growth and improvement of these wines at Grant Burge Wines.

“Grant and I share common ideas and beliefs,” says Craig. “He is very receptive and open to new ideas and allows experimentation, which has actually created a collection of Reserve wines, which I believe is very important for the future development of the company and its portfolio.”

Craig believes his greatest skill is in blending – in being able to recognize the varying qualities in each individual parcel of wine and then successfully meeting the challenge of creating the best combination. “However, the more I taste and learn about wine, the less I feel I know. That’s what keeps my drive and passion for wine. Like most winemakers I believe I’m still to make my best wine,” he says.

The wines of the Rhone Valley have been a particular inspiration for Craig who visited the region in 1996 and he has put his talents and knowledge from this experience into The Holy Trinity and Balthasar wines, which he has found to be a particularly rewarding and enjoyable challenge.

“I believe in Australia, we still have a lot to learn about subtlety, complexity, structure and texture. At Grant Burge Wines, we have constant access to the best raw material to make the best wines, as Grant has his own vineyards and grape sources,” he says. “However I still believe we can fine tune and make even better wines than we are currently making.”

With a highly regarded palate for wine tasting, Craig has been an Associate Judge at the Barossa Wine Show and the National Wine Show in Canberra, and he has served on tasting panels for Winestate magazine and the Advanced Wine Assessment Industry Course. 

Craig believes the Australian wine industry is still in a strong position globally.  “The 2025 plan is an excellent blueprint for the future,” he says. “Our plantings have exceeded national expectations and we will see a slowdown but it will balance out. Grant Burge Wines now export to over twenty countries, so we must keep up with what’s happening in the wine industry elsewhere in the world and have global benchmarks to measure our own achievements by. It is important we keep striving for excellence and we still have a lot to learn, but I’m enjoying the journey there.”

Craig lives on his property at Williamstown, and runs a small vineyards.

www.grantburgewines.com.au