Patina is a family-owned estate nestled in the rich volcanic slopes of Mt Canobolas near Orange, New South Wales. The winery and vineyard was established by Gerald Naef, with his philosophy of blending science and technology with age-old tradition to create complex flavours forged by the elements of nature.
Patina Wine represents the complexity and elegance of cool climate wine defined by nature and the vigneron’s personal signature.
Gerald Naef
As a child growing up surrounded by vineyards in the central valley of California I had several attempts at making wine. “I’d smash up some grapes or stone fruit in an out of the way spot in the shed where no one would discover and watch it turn to grey-green slime that could only be tipped out when the wind was favourable.”
Then in year ten Gerald’s agriculture teacher, a would-be-wine-maker, taught a segment on wine making and he was hooked. He went straight home and smashed about a hundred kilos of grapes into two plastic garbage bins, added a little bakers yeast and made 40 litres of wine.
Gerald’s home was in the country near Lodi which at that time grew the largest quantity of grapes in the US. He lived in the Woodbridge district among the vines, fruit trees and beautiful old oaks of the central valley. Woodbridge was where Robert Mondavi started and now has a huge commercial winery; it was also home to the Gallo wines.
He attended California State University, Fresno. During his summer break he secured employment with a family friend who was a successful farmer growing 2000 acres of various irrigated broad acre crops. After he had worked for him for a month he asked me to continue working for him instead of returning to university for the autumn session.
Gerald’s response was he’d stay and work for him if he’d start him off in farming. He had approached the owner of an undeveloped dry-land grazing property that had been for sale for some time and offered him a four year lease-purchase arrangement which involved the development of the entire 310 acres into an irrigation property.
In 1981 adventure called and Gerald sold his farm and bought a farm in Northern NSW with other family members. It was a 2400 acre un-developed farm with 800 acres of water entitlement that we would develop into an irrigated farm. The family set up a family partnership packed their bags and late in 1981 at the ripe old age of 26, his wife of 22 and he immigrated to Australia.