Charles “Chilly” Hargrave is the man in charge of the winemaking team behind Yellowglen’s popular sparkling wines. As Yellowglen’s Chief Winemaker since 1999, Chilly has overseen the style and development of Yellowglen’s wines – from the fresh fruit and everyday enjoyment of Yellow and Pink to the highly accoladed Vintage Perle.

Chilly has a wealth of experience and knowledge about Australian sparkling wines. Under Chilly’s care, the Yellowglen brand has risen to dizzying heights as Australia’s most popular and instantly recognisable sparkling wine…

The man behind the wine - a Q+A with Charles Hargrave.

What brought you to winemaking? I came to winemaking by a rather roundabout way, so it’s probably best to give you the short version! Being a child of the sixties with a predilection for rock and roll, I worked through an economics degree, an arts degree, a stint in outback Australia and finally labouring in vineyards and wineries before I was convinced to attend Roseworthy College and graduated in the class of 1978.

And why sparkling in particular? It has always been my passion. First as a consumer, then as a producer.

What were your goals when you started your career in winemaking? My original goals over 30 years ago were to make sparkling wines from my own vineyard in the Adelaide Hills and then look to making sparkling wine in the south of England.

What are they now? Curiously, I’ve achieved the first of these and the way climate change is going I may get a shot at the other one!

What or who inspires you in winemaking? At the risk of sounding corny, I’m always inspired by the focus, dedication and initiative of our team of sparkling winemakers to always make it happen the best way.

What would you describe is the highlight of your career? My career has been too enjoyable overall so far to pick and choose a highlight, it’s all been very rewarding.

The most challenging? Every vintage has been different and required vision and flexibility. Now with climate change and water deficits we need to format a new approach to work with these challenges. I might add we are winning.

What is your aim for the Yellowglen wines? My focus is always to make wines that are balanced, express their origins and deliver quality and value.

What do you think are key trends in Australian sparkling wines? There is a growing emphasis on style, region and grape variety to drive quality. This has an obvious focus on cold climate regions for the premium wines, but I think some of our major advances have been with the more commercial wines. They stand out head and shoulders above the rest on the world stage in what they offer the consumer for the price.

On Vintage Perle – Yellowglen’s most distinctive bubbly.

What do you try to achieve with Perle? I want the wine to have complexity yet elegance. I want it to be full of flavour and yet have a delicacy and structure that makes it melt in the mouth. I want the varieties (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier) to express themselves.

With Perle Rosé? The Rosé gets a slightly different approach. I want this wine to be different and to show the red fruits that the colour suggests. To achieve this we have produced a blend with a much higher proportion of Pinot. The Rosé is based on over 40% Pinot Noir, but has about 35% Pinot Meunier which gives a real strawberry and cream note to the wine.

Can you tell me about how Perle has evolved since the first vintage? The first vintage was 2001. Over the successive vintages we have gradually appreciated which regions, vineyards and varietal mix suit the style. We have fine tuned our winery processes and the way we put our wines into tirage (the filling of wines for fermentation in the bottle).

Tell me about the vineyards that Perle is sourced from? The major source of grapes for Perle is the Adelaide Hills, but we also have a strong focus on the cool climate regions of Victoria (Drumborg, Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula). 

Our Old World – New World distinctions important? The Old World is so important because it has done all the work in defining styles and selecting varieties and their clones, but it is constrained by its tradition and the way it protects the status quo. In the New World we have no boundaries or constraints, but are only 100 years into something that will take centuries to understand. Every year we only get one shot at it and so change happens very slowly – which is as it should be.