St. Dune is a project from brothers Duncan and Peter Lloyd using fruit sourced from a vineyard in the Blewitt Springs sub-region of McLaren Vale. Peter and Duncan grew up immersed in a world of wine, olive oil, illegal goat's cheese and great food. Both boys worked in kitchens from the age of 13 and developed a love of good food and an understanding of wine's role in bringing food to life.
Duncan studied winemaking before leaving the area to make wine around Australia and the world from Tasmania, Margaret River, Chianti, Rhone and beyond. He has recently returned to McLaren Vale as he cannot understand why you would want to live anywhere else.
Peter left the area after university and spent time baking bread in different parts of France, shovelling croissants in Paris, making cider in Somerset, and raising Alpacas in Sussex before working in wine distribution in Melbourne for several years. Peter also can't understand why you would want to live anywhere but McLaren Vale which explains his highly irritable nature as he lives in Melbourne.
The approach with St. Dune is not one of minimal intervention. They farm organically and ferment simply, they don't fine their wines, sulphur is added in minimal amounts and the wines receive a gentle filter prior to bottling. However, they do intervene, in some of their varieties, and in others, they do not.
Each wine starts with a style they have in mind and make the wine according to that style obviously based on the individual qualities of the vineyard. This may involve different pruning techniques, green harvest or bunch thinning, and differing dates for harvest depending on the part of the vineyard.