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| PEOPLE |
Mark Davidson – Managing Director/Chief Winemaker
 Mark is married to Lou Davidson with two daughters, Samantha and
Eliza. While working as an HR Trainer/Psychologist for the Australian
Government in the late 1970s, he commenced Viticulture and Wine
Science training at Riverina College NSW (now Charles Sturt
University). In 1985 Mark began working at this newly purchased
winery in the Hunter Valley and took up the roles of Board Chairman
and Managing Director, with day to day responsibility for the whole
business including winemaking and viticulture.
In purchasing the Orange vineyards in 1997, Tamburlaine took a
significant step forward in terms of quality and versatility of its wines.
Mark was the inaugural winner of the ‘Hunter Vigneron of the Year’ in
1998. Mark has been a past board member for the Australian
Winemakers Forum, Hunter Valley Wine Industry Association and
Hunter Valley Wine Country Tourism and today is a board member for
two Australian private companies as well as a Director of his
Australian Wine Bar in Guangzhou, China, and consultant to a winery
venture in Shandong, NE China.
All vineyards in the Hunter Valley and Orange are certified with the
Biological Farmers Federation, where Mark is the current Convener of
the BFA Vignerons Advisory Group.
JONATHAN SCOTT – Executive Director/Export
 In 2006 Jonathan joined the Board of the Tamburlaine Wine Group as
Executive Director – Export. Jonathan and his family have been
Tamburlaine shareholders since 1985. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of
Commerce from the UNSW and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Jonathan Scott, has had a 25 year involvement in the development
and success of Australian wine on the world scene. As Australian
Trade Commissioner to London (1985 to 1989), Jonathan was
instrumental in establishing Australia’s first overseas wine marketing
office. In 1997, Jonathan was appointed Chief Executive of the
Australian Wine Export Council (AWEC), a position he held for nearly
9 years.
Jonathan also currently writes regular articles for the Australian Wine
Industry Journal where he is Associate Editor of the magazine and a
member of their Editorial Advisory Panel.
Jonathan has proud historical connections with Australia’s early wine
industry development, as his French Great-great Grandfather, Jean
Theodore DeRavin was one of Australia’s earliest wine makers in the
Bendigo region of Victoria in the 1870's.
LOU DAVIDSON – General Manager Weddings / Corporate
Events
 Born and educated in Newcastle NSW into a family of five girls (“my
poor dad, but he did always insist that the family pets were male,
albeit neutered!”..). Lou met Mark at Newcastle University in
1974 where they both gained a B.A., majoring in Psychology. She
then went on to teach Primary/Infants school and married Mark in
1978. Lou's teaching career was interrupted twice when they had
their two (“gorgeous”…Lou) daughters, Samantha and Eliza.
When Mark and Lou purchased the winery, Lou retired from teaching
and exchanged her ‘teaching hat’ to run the cellar door /
administration / accounts / and membership club. According to Lou
“in the early days it was all hands on deck, with family and friends
rallying around to help on busy weekends and at vintage time. The
girls were even adept, at the ages of 2 and 4, at helping round up the
few cattle we had on the property!”.
As the new business grew, Lou was able hand over her mid-week
roles to the newly recruited team and went back to working at cellar
door on weekends and teaching language, art, music and PE, at local
schools during the week. She also continued to study, starting her
Masters in Educating the Gifted and Talented and a post-grad course
in Japanese. She also won a scholarship (at the grand age of 44…Lou)
to go to Tokyo to live in a language college for a month.
In 2001, Tamburlaine built the new function centre (The Members'
Lodge) and in 2003 Lou again swapped her 'teacher's hat' to build up
the corporate and wedding function business, another string to the
Tamburlaine bow. Today, Tamburlaine has achieved industry
recognition as one of the best wedding venues in the Hunter region,
and in the last year, the centre proudly hosted the wedding of
daughters Samantha and Eliza. Both Samantha and Eliza contributed
to Tamburlaine during the early years, doing cellar door hosting, lab
and winery work and outside tastings, but left to pursue their
University degrees. Today Samantha works for Macquarie Bank and
Eliza is a Pre-school teacher.
“ For now I think I will be wearing this hat for a while....it still fits and
feels just right!! (perhaps my next hat will have 'granny' written on
it....no pressure girls!!)” Lou Davidson
JAN WILLIAMS – Cellar Door Manager
 It’s been 15 years since Jan first began at Tamburlaine. Says Jan,
“since I started, I consider myself to be very fortunate to have met so
many great people at the Cellar Door, many of whom became
Members and in some cases, personal friends”.
How did she get here? A country girl, not by origin but definitely at
heart, she holds dear the years spent on the family farm in the
Belford area of the Hunter Valley where she helped run a small
business, which also allowed her the opportunity to indulge her love
of horses. The property location is historically important as the
location where James Busby first planted vines in the Hunter Valley,
and the property known as ‘Kirkton’ is claimed to be the site of one of
the first commercial vineyards in Australia. Although the vines had
long gone, the days on the farm fostered a keen interest in the wine
industry and, as fate would have it, Jan one day found herself on the
road to Tamburlaine. When Jan arrived at Tamburlaine in July 1994,
it didn’t take her very long to realise that she had found her niche.
This was her style of business, family owned, run with energy and
passion that was infectious!
Jan has always been an advocate of “ the healthy state of being” and
has an absolute affinity with the company’s philosophy and
commitment to organic production.
Jan would love you to visit her and the Cellar Door Team!
GARY JENNER – POKOLBIN VINEYARDS
 Gary Jenner has been at Tamburlaine since 1992 and knows every
vine at the Pokolbin Vineyard like the back of his calloused hands.
Married with two girls. Gary is involved in all aspects of the vineyard
and he is also involved in grape processing in the winery during
vintage. During his time at Tamburlaine Gary has witnessed the
conversion of the vineyards to organic. According to Gary ‘when most
of the organic changes were implemented, the vines originally took a
while to adjust to new organic treatment. We are now starting to see
the benefits of organic conversion with better quality fruit with vines
with leaf and bunches more in balance’.
CLAYTON KIELY – ORANGE VINEYARDS
 Clayton has been working in the wine industry for fifteen years.
During that time he has been involved with the construction and
planting of approximately 2000ha of vineyards in the Orange,
Canowindra, Cowra and Young districts.
He began managing the Tamburlaine Orange vineyard back in 1999
and has been involved with its transition to A grade organic status. In
that time he completed his studies in wine grape management
through Sydney University.
Clayton has a particular interest in biodynamics and its benefits to the
soil, and sustainability in agriculture. Outside work he has keen
interests in fishing, camping and the development of his home herb
garden.
BRUCE BROWNE – MUDGEE VINEYARDS
 Tamburlaine sources organic certified fruit from Mount Frome
Vineyards, located near Mudgee, NSW. Bruce has extensive
knowledge and experience in grape growing and sourcing wine grape
fruit. Bruce Browne owns the property and is also a consultant
horticulturalist and contractor. In the late 1990s Bruce was
responsible for sourcing some 35,000t of fruit for Southcorp Wines
(which has now been absorbed by the Fosters Group) and supervised
some 600 contract growers.
JUSTIN ENRIGHT – WATTLEBROOK VINEYARDS
Justin has been with Wattlebrook since 1999. Over this time he has
made the move towards lessening the use of chemicals and
increasing attention to canopy management and vine health. This
approach has not only led to an increase in fruit quality but has
assisted in the transition to organic certification.
PETE TAYLOR - Maintenance and Environmental Manager
 Born and raised in Devonport Tasmania, Pete began his working life with the families sheet-metal manufacturing company until a car accident claimed his knee cap in 1986.
Moving on and qualifying as an Automotive Technician with a Toyota dealership, Pete, in the early 90's, got the travel bug, fitted out his transit van and spent the next 18 months touring Australia, picking up a variety of jobs as he drove along, from lobster-sorting in W.A. to vineyard work for Wolf Blass in S.A., slate-tiler in F.N.Qld. to delivery van driver across the NSW / Qld border.
Pete returned to Tassie and began what would turn out to be a 20 year career in Hospitality, being the first Concierge for P.& O. Resorts Australia at Cradle Mountain Lodge.
During this 20 year period Pete focused mainly with multi-national groups,working with about 14 different companies which took him from mountain top resorts to tropical islands and everything in between, Pete even spent 2 years in Los Angeles, California working with a corporate Hilton Hotel as their first Guest Services Technician.
With time spent in Perisher Valley and Thredbo resorts, Pete eventually moved to the Hunter Valley area, working with Hunter Valley Gardens for approx. 4 years before deciding on another change.
Now with Tamburlaine Wines as the Environmental and Maintenance Manager Pete is set to challenge new targets specifically with regard to sustainability and carbon reduction for this innovative company. |
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