J&S Fielke would have to be one of the most electrifying producers to come out of the Adelaide Hills in recent years. Their Lenswood chardonnay has been variously described by Halliday taster Mike Bennie as “brilliant,” “complex,” “evocative,” “individual,” “very, very delicious,” “super high-ranking in drinkability,” and “one of the country's best value chardonnay wines”.
Jemma and Steve, both Hills’ locals, met at Adelaide Uni in 2014. Jemma got her start in the cellar door at Rockford; Steve, after a vintage at Wendouree, got his as a cellar hand at Tapanappa. She progressed to viticulturist; he to assistant winemaker. After a harvest in the USA in 2018 – she in the Finger Lakes and he in Oregon – they launched their eponymous label in 2019.
The dream was always chardonnay (“Piccadilly chardonnay specifically,” Steve says), although, for the first two vintages, they only made Piccadilly pinot noir – the Lenswood chardonnay was introduced in 2021. In 2023, they made their first blanc de blancs, and in 2026, they released their first fiano and, finally, their first Piccadilly chardonnay.
But while the range has evolved, the vision hasn’t: “The Hills is such a diverse area, and the overarching goal for us has always been to explore that diversity,” Steve says. As well as sourcing from top growers in the region, including Geoff Weaver, Henschke, and the Deanery Vineyards, where Jemma is vineyard manager (“She's got a reputation in the Hills as one of the best tractor drivers in the Piccadilly Valley!”), they also planted their own vineyard in 2019, at Jemma’s family property in Lower Hermitage, to shiraz, cinsault and grenache.
Their approach is very much viticulture first – “There’s a reason it's J&S Fielke,” Steve says – and then translating those sites and subregions into wines with the potential to age, but that also “look good straight out of the gate.
“Mostly, I’m shit-scared of making boring wines!”
Fortunately, there’s no danger of that.
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