Dan Buckle is the busiest man alive. Alongside his ‘proper job’ as Chief winemaker in the Yarra Valley for a little known (wink wink) winery called Chandon, Dan runs his own wine project, Circe. You may have tried his wines through Good Pair Days! Dan’s work history is impressive and inspiring. Falling in love with the magic of Shiraz, Dan spent many vintages in the Grampians of Western Victoria, and catapulted ‘Mount Langi Ghiran’ to another level of wine fame, with his knack for whole bunch fermentation, and creating incredible spicy, aromatic and highly distinctive Shiraz.

Like a fashion designer, Dan has a ‘style’, and if he weren’t making fragrant wines, we think he could make a great perfumer! With his mate from’Langi’ days, Aaron Drummond, these two friends who grew up on the Mornington Peninsula, found themselves pretty keen and curious as to what they could do with Pinot Noir from such great soil, and so Circe was born.

The name ‘Circe’ derives from Homer and is a nice metaphor for the seductions – and perils – of Pinot Noir. Dan is an incredible wine brain, and with Circe, is singularly focussed on making pretty wines with compelling aromatics, without concern for colour, power or weight. He wants people to be captivated by the nose of these wines.

Good Pair Days had a hilarious chat with the legendary Dan, and asked a few questions – read on!

Q1. You travel a lot for winemaking. Where is the most adventurous place you have done it? (making wine, that is)

This isn’t going to sound overly adventurous until I explain it. I did a vintage in 2007, in France’s Bordeaux region – a place called Carsin. The Chateau was owned by a Finnish guy, who ran the only Finnish wine magazine. Finnish people love all things gadgets and technology, and he had seen our winemaking engineering at Petaluma. He was hugely impressed by what we were doing here, and soon afterwards I found myself as an Australian abroad, in Bordeaux, working for Finnish people.  Among a cohort of young Finnish staff running the place, in a French location… it was so much fun, and super crazy. They love to drink and party, and needless to say, it was absolute bedlam. Yes, I’ve made wine in China and Argentina, but nothing was as adventurous as my time in Bordeaux.

Source: Good Pair Days – full article