Owen and Cassandra Inglis didn’t plan on becoming vignerons. Then based in Hong Kong, they were searching for a place in the Adelaide Hills, where Owen had family ties, to live when they were ready for a change of pace. “We’d been looking for a horse property,” he says. But when the site they found on Mappinga Road in Oakbank in 2004 came with a 20ha vineyard, the plan changed.
Still, it wasn’t totally random. Although Owen made his fortune in bag manufacturing, he’d spent the better part of the ’80s and ’90s importing wine from South Africa into China and Hong Kong for his family’s food and beverage distribution business. Cassandra, who’d also grown up in a wine-obsessed family, had owned and run a successful bar on the Greek island of Santorini and was a qualified sommelier on top of being a schoolteacher.
From there, things moved pretty fast. In '05, to the existing Mappinga Road vineyard, originally planted by Coriole in 2000 to sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot gris, they added a further 36ha, planting shiraz as well as more chardonnay and pinot gris. A second vineyard (4.8ha of certified organic shiraz), this time with a winery on it, was purchased in 2014 in Nairne and the latter swiftly renovated – by ’16, the winery’s footprint had doubled, and capacity had increased four-fold. In ’18, Owen installed a bottling line.
A lack of winery facilities prior to ’14 meant that Sidewood Estate’s early wines were made externally, largely by Natasha Mooney at Barossa Valley Estate. Sidewood’s first ever vintages, though – 2007 for reds, and 2008 for whites – were made by Darryl Catlin at Shaw + Smith. When Owen began “looking around for a home to call our own,” he hired Darryl as chief winemaker; a position Darryl still holds, although he’s been slowly moving into a consultancy role since senior winemaker Dylan Lee came on board in ’24.
Two more vineyards have been acquired over the years – 25ha on Ironstone Road in Echunga, and 28ha in Charleston dubbed ‘Charlie’s Patch’ – bringing the total holdings to 110ha. They’re planted variously to the region’s classic varieties, including pinot noir, pinot gris, pinot blanc, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and shiraz, but distinguished by the clonal selection.
“We have 12 clonal varieties of shiraz, which I think is more than any other privately held vineyard, at least in the Adelaide Hills region, if not the world,” Owen says. “And nine clonal varieties of pinot noir,” including the rare Oberlin clone, of which only 50ha is planted globally.
The extensive portfolio consists of three core ranges: Estate, Mappinga and Signature. Varietal wines dominate the approachable, entry-level Estate range, and Mappinga is reserved for a select handful that come solely off their flagship vineyard. The largest is the Signature and comprises several single-clone bottlings of shiraz and pinot noir, a range of premium sparkling, including the Cassandra Blanc de Blancs and the Chloe Cuvée (named after Owen and Cassandra’s daughter), and arguably the jewel in the crown, the Owen’s Chardonnay. Made only in the best years, the 2024 is just the sixth release of Owen’s since it was first made in ’14.
While not trying to emulate the wines of Europe exactly, Sidewood is shooting for a similar, cool-climate elegance. “I don’t like big reds, never have,” Owen says. “I’m a Burgundy guy. I like balanced, delicate wines with great acidity. These are the wines you want to drink a second bottle of.
“There’s never a bottle of Sidewood left on a table after a dinner party, not that I’ve seen. I’ve always said we make two-bottle wines… you’re not going to wake up with a hangover unless you have the third.”
In 2020, Sidewood opened a standalone cellar door in Hahndorf, complete with a sun-drenched courtyard, bocce courts, a dedicated kid-friendly area with swings, beanbags, and room to run, a tasting room and a restaurant. Chef Nick Filsell, who co-founded Uraidla’s Lost in a Forest with the late Taras Ochota, is on the pans in the latter, and the space is hung with original artworks from Aussie greats, including Charles Blackman, John Olsen, Tom Gleghorn and David Bromley.
Owen is particularly excited by the brand-new appointment of Samuel Smith & Son as national distributor for Sidewood Estate, which will see the wines become much more readily available outside of South Australia, particularly on the east coast, and allow him and the team to get back to focusing on “making fantastic wines.”
The Sidewood Estate cellar door is open daily at 6 River Rd, Hahndorf. Visit the Sidewood website for more information.
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