Greg Melick

Greg (pictured left with Huon Hooke), founder of Pressing Matters, wasn’t sure which was worse: his mother finding 2 cases of wine in the bottom of his wardrobe or finding out that to purchase the wine he’d gambled at a very tender age and won on the daily double at Werribee Races ….. and so began Greg’s love affair with wine.

Greg has been a passionate consumer of wine for over 50 years and has visited many vineyards throughout the world. He wears many other hats: Senior Counsel; Major General in the Australian Defence Force in a career spanning 50 years; a national and international wine judge; a Master Judge of Wine and one of the few Australians to hold a passport from the Primum Familae Vinum. With a remarkable palate memory (now, he says, fading with Winezheimers) Greg has been know to correctly name, in a blind tasting, a wine by having read about it alone.

As busy as Greg is in his first careers, he is committed and passionate about producing quality Tasmanian Riesling and Pinot Noir and in his words ‘runs interference’ in key aspects of the vineyard. His two favourite wine growing areas are Mosel and Burgundy. Hence, the vineyard has been planted with the two ‘Noble’ varieties Riesling and Pinot Noir.

Greg is married to his second love Michelle (his first love, he famously once said in her presence, was ‘wine’) and has 3 adult children. Amazingly he has time for a wife and family but, sadly, the children don’t drink wine so he’s still working on the succession plan.

Michelle Melick 

Wife of the above-mentioned workaholic, Michelle keeps the home fires burning looking after administration, sales, marketing, tastings and some selective vineyard tasks. She avoids pruning– mainly because she has a black thumb (not green) and, really, who wants to be outside in 5 degrees pruning all day? Michelle is quite happy to mow the rows on her John Deere 52” ride-on, lift wires, paint the sheds, attend wine fairs and occasionally make morning teas for the real workers at the vineyard…..

Tom Wald

  Tom joined the Pressing Matters team in  August 2018 and works hard in the vineyard not only doing viticulture tasks such as planting and pruning but also assists wine-maker Sam Connew in the winery.  Tom is pictured here on one of the mulitple pressing days during vintage working on the 2019  pinot noir.