To cut a long story short... A boy from Sydney named Graeme Melton, arrived in the Barossa Valley in 1973. Graeme and a mate needed jobs to fix their broken EH Holden ute to continue their road trip across Australia. There were two jobs going – one, a cellarhand at Krondorf, and another pruning a vineyard down the road. They flipped a coin – Graeme got the cellarhand job.

At Krondorf he met Barossa winemaking legend Peter Lehmann and moved with Peter when he set up his new winery six years later. Lehmann refused to call his protégé “Graeme”, hence “Charlie” was born - and has stuck!

After working for Peter for the next 12 years, Charlie struck out on his own with his first vintage in 1984. Since then the Melton estate holdings have grown to 80 acres of dry grown old vine shiraz, bush grenache and cabernet.