From High Heels to High Yields | Emma White's Winemaking Adventure
Republished with permission: Your Hunter Valley Magazine (www.yourhuntervalley.com.au).
Fun with serious intent is the catch cry of Emma White, owner of Latitude 32 Wines. Her signature modern twist on the Hunter Valley wine and cellar door experience is all about having a good time, enjoying exceptional award-winning wines and fostering a connection with the land that grows the fruit from which her wines are made.
Located on Hermitage Road Pokolbin, her newly renovated cellar door features sweeping views of the vineyard, set against the backdrop of the Broken Back Mountains. A place where picnics are encouraged, lawn games can be enjoyed by young and old, and wine can be purchased by the glass and enjoyed on a stroll through the vineyard, this is one place you need on your itinerary when visiting the Hunter.
A relatively new kid on the block, Emma hails originally from Essex in the UK. She grew up in a tiny village and was always ambitious.
“Where I grew up, people married who they went to school with,” said Emma.
“I remember telling my teacher I wanted to move to London and be independent. She told me that that didn’t happen for ‘people like us’. I remember thinking that I wouldn’t let that happen to me. I wanted to wear high heels and power suits and earn plenty of money, so I chose a career in accounting rather than following my interest in chemistry. Looking back,
perhaps the chemistry would have been more useful in winemaking!”
Emma would go on to enjoy a highly successful career in corporate accounting, meet her future husband, David White, at work, and together they moved to Australia in the year 2000 for a two-year work secondment - they fell in love with Australia and stayed.
“It was because we thought we would only be here for two years that we prioritised travelling within Australia, and we spent every weekend visiting some new place. More often than not, it involved wine. We naturally gravitated to the wine regions rather than the beaches, and it was here in the Hunter that we really understood how much we loved it. At that point in time, Australian winemakers weren’t letting the good stuff out of the country. The Chardonnay we drank back in the UK was completely different from what we drank here, and we developed a passion for wine.
“We were fortunate enough that our jobs entailed a lot of international travel and corporate hospitality. Our friends called us wine-chasers because no matter where we landed, we would always head to the nearest wine region to develop our knowledge and taste what was available. It was in 2014 that we seriously began looking for a vineyard to purchase. It became my dream to have a go, to give it a try and see what I could make of it. While we looked, I studied for my WSET Diploma. We settled on the Hunter Valley because of its proximity to Sydney and the fact that it was the region that sparked our initial passion.
“We found the right property in 2018 in central Pokolbin. It had been planted by Tyrrells in the 1980s and then ran as Duck Hollow before we purchased it. The 2019 vintage, our first, was off the back of three years of drought, so there wasn’t a big yield. There was no fruit in 2020 due to bushfires, and in 2021 we lost a whole block of fruit due to hail damage. The property also didn’t have a cellar door, and our DA to build one didn’t come through until early 2023, by which time material and labour costs ad more than doubled. Over a glass or two of wine one evening with our viticulturist in May 2023, we heard that a vineyard was possibly going up for sale, one with award-winning wines and a cellar door. It was the old Mistletoe vineyard, and within 24 hours, we decided to purchase – it never hit the market.
“We immediately embarked on a major renovation of the cellar door, which opened in April of this year. I wanted to create a cosy home-style space. It’s like the front room of someone’s home, with various seating arrangements to suit whatever makes people feel comfortable, including outside seating on the lawn. We used lots of glass in the cellar door so
that people could enjoy the view across the vines. There’s a verandah and patio and lawn games.
“Kids of all ages love the giant Connect Four, giant Jenga, Quoits and Ten Pin Bowling. We’re dog-friendly, and we have a fire pit during the winter months. We sell wine by the glass and encourage people to take their glasses and wander around the grounds, stroll to the dam, and feel that connection to the land. It’s a relaxed atmosphere.”
Emma went on to study several viticulture courses on her never ending mission to truly understand how things work, and she developed a core belief that the wine is made in the vineyard and that it’s the quality of the fruit that delivers the best results.
“One of the advantages of being new to this industry is that we are not beholden to multiple generations of traditions. We don’t have to deliver that history in the glass. We come at winemaking not from the traditional winemakers’ perspective but from a consumer’s perspective. This gives us enormous freedom and flexibility in terms of our vintages. We fully embrace vintage variation and respect what happens in the vineyard. We make what we like to drink and will not force our vintages to taste the same year after year."
"It’s more like the European style of winemaking, where you talk about the different vintages and embrace the variation. We love it that way.”
In a recent exciting development, winemaker Adam Holmberg has joined the team at Latitude 32. Holmberg trained at Tyrrells and spent ten years at Leogate Estate as Assistant Winemaker. He has also worked on vintages across Europe and the Napa Valley. According to Emma, Holmberg shares her commitment to the fruit, and he will be overseeing much of the vineyard practices. This includes a goal of moving toward sustainable practices, which Emma prefers to call ‘regenerative’.
“It’s important to me to convert as much of our practice as possible to those that help the land regenerate. I want to look after our planet and our future, but I also want the best possible soil for our fruit to grow in. We’ve committed to reducing our tractor and diesel use, and we’ve ordered native bees to pollinate our cover crop – we plant 20 different seeds in between the rows, things like canola, legumes, and rhubarb. It stops the vineyard from becoming a monoculture and reduces our need for chemicals and synthetics because when we mow it back into the soil,it becomes a natural fertiliser. It becomes an ecosystem that looks after itself.”
This commitment to the land is the reason that Latitude 32 has taken a lease over another vineyard, one that grows the North Rhone Clone, which is very different from the rest of the Hunter Valley Shiraz. “It’s a bit geeky, but I love the North Rhone Clone, and so, rather than simply purchasing the fruit, leasing has enabled us to manage the vineyard and the growing conditions so that we can produce the best
possible fruit.”
Latitude 32 produces Semillon, two different styles of Chardonnay every vintage, Semillon Chardonnay blends, Shiraz, Méthode Traditionelle Sparkling from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Rosé from the Shiraz and is looking at planting Spanish varietals Mencia and Tempranillo and the Italian Aglianico.
“We’re excited to be able to experiment and put a modern twist on our wines and wine experiences. It’s loads of fun. We must be doing something right because we recently picked up a Gold Medal at the Canberra Wine Show for our 2024 Semillon. One of our most fun offerings is something we call The Enigma. Its a wine that I have wanted to make for a long time, so a lot of research, love and energy went into the making of this and it has turned out exactly how I wanted it to - I am very excited about this one."
In terms of the future, the team is currently exporting to China and looking to the European market next. There is also a focus on expanding the cellar door experiences.
Visitors to the cellar door can enjoy a delicious selection of light snacks with their wines, including a vegan cheese board, but the real point of difference here is the dumplings and wine pairing with various flavour combinations, pork and prawn, Schezuen beef, cheese burger and vegetarian options.
Booked breakfast hampers are available from 9am to enjoy in the vineyards. Visitors can do walks through the vineyards with the winemaker and viticulturist. Once a month there is a Friday Night Jam Session, a relaxed event with a food truck serving dinner and plenty of wine on offer until 9pm. The cellar door is open Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. Wine tastings begin at $15pp for seven tastings, or you can purchase a glass of wine for $12. Book your tastings at
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