THE STORY BEGINS IN 1973 when Graeme Leith and Sue Mackinnon, great friends and partners, decided that they wanted even more challenges in life than were possible for them in their careers as an electrical contractor and a journalist. They wanted to brave the elements, face the challenges of the land, and like so many before them pursue the holy grail of "the best wine in the world".

Graeme Leith

Graeme Leith Passing CloudsThey chose a site in a dry area north west of Bendigo on old gold diggings, where the soil had been dug over a hundred and twenty years before by goldminers. There they planted their vines, initially shiraz and cabernet sauvignon, to make a classic Aussie blend.

They were successful, and the first wine they showed at the Melbourne Wine Show, the 1982 Shiraz Cabernet won Gold. Since then they have won additional acclaim for their straight Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noirs. As one wine writer said: “I have a lot of sample bottles on my table at the end of the day, but whenever there’s Passing Clouds, it’s the one we drink with dinner”.

MODERN TIMES

The drought beginning in the early 2000s plagued Passing Clouds for the next decade, and it saw the beloved old vines struggle and the crops gradually diminish.

It was time to put the succession plan into action, and fortunately they had one. Graeme’s  “retirement” vineyard at Musk, near Daylesford, from where he used to tend it when he lived there had been providing increasing amounts of grapes for the Passing Clouds Pinot and Chardonnay and it was making very good wine. Cameron, Graeme’s son who had been working with Dad from an early age, had been bitten by the winemaking bug. Cameron had been accepted into Melbourne University’s winemaking course and has for some years been taking over the winemaking reins from Graeme, so the stage was set for a transition.

With the Kingower vineyard, and those of the neighbors producing so little fruit and the Daylesford vineyard high on the north facing slope of the Great Dividing Range defying global warming or drought or whatever it is that plagues, it was time for Mohammed to come to the mountain!

Sadly Sue can’t be with the new Passing Clouds, for she died in 2009, unfortunately before she could taste our Sparkling Chardonnay from the Daylesford vineyard, but Graeme and Cameron feel sure that she would have approved.

future harvests

We are still making our traditional reds, but our emphasis has shifted to the cool climate Pinots and Chardonnays. Graeme has made many medal winning pinots over the years and we expect Cameron will carry on the tradition, whilst putting his own stamp on what promises to be some exciting vintages in the near future.