Darryl Catlin launched Catlin Wines back in 2013, but it’s only in the past few years that he’s finally had the time to focus on it.
Picking grapes and pruning vines for pocket money as a kid growing up in the Barossa was the foundation for his career, which has spanned wine bottling, packaging, retail and winemaking.
From 1999 to the end of ’12, Darryl worked at Shaw + Smith, rapidly progressing from cellar hand to chief winemaker. After a brief interlude, in which he started both his consultancy business and his eponymous label, he became chief winemaker at Sidewood Estate in early ’14.
The turning point came after a particularly hectic vintage in 2021. “I was continuing to work at the same pace for someone else for the second time,” Darryl says. “I went, ‘I can't keep doing this for other people, I need to concentrate on my own little brand.”
Since stepping back into a consultancy role at Sidewood, and setting up an urban cellar door in an old warehouse in Adelaide he’s called Catlin on Magill, Catlin Wines has exploded. There are 18 wines in the current release – “way too many!” – made mostly from Adelaide Hills fruit, with a focus on varieties the region does best.
Darryl’s winemaking philosophy is to “watch the season”. This means only using whole bunch when the stalks are good enough, only allowing chardonnay to go through malo when it needs to, and so on. “I listen to what the grapes are telling us,” he says, although aims to be “as hands-off as possible with as little additions as possible, to let them shine through”.
But ultimately, his aim is to find the sweet spot between winemaking, the cellar door, distribution, and one or two consultancies. “I’ve dedicated my life to making sure other people are successful,” he says. “Now I want to find the right balance between everything and just enjoy life.”
