John Davey:Owner, Viticulturist & Senior Winemaker of Shingleback adheres to the adage, "great wine begins in the vineyard", overseeing winemaking from vine to bottle, providing Shingleback it's "Key Competitive Edge".
John graduated from South Australia's Roseworthy College with a degree in enology and worked for 15 years as a winemaker throughout Australia including the Barossa, Langhorne Creek and Yarra Valley.
In 1995 he returned home to McLaren Vale to join his brother Kym for the planting of the vineyard on property owned by the family for five decades. John describes himself as a "minimalist winemaker" who seeks to capture the true character of the McLaren Vale by avoiding excessive manipulation of the grapes and by treating wines gently from fermentation through aging. John handcrafts his wines from vine to bottle selecting a small percentage of his family's finest estate-grown grapes each vintage.
Since the debut of Shingleback in 1998 and Red Knot in 2002, John has enjoyed critical success- including winning the prestigious Jimmy Watson Memorial trophy in 2006 with the 2005 Shingleback D Block Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon!