Simpatico Wines

As I read the background material to this venture of Steve and Rebecca Hay, I realised that ‘simpatico' was a term often used by my parents and elder brother and sister in my youth, but one I had almost forgotten about. I like the Hays' explanation that it is a word applied to people being like-minded and on the same wavelength. The Hays extend it to being open-minded, agreeable and approachable. In the prime of their lives, Steve (a carpenter and builder) and Rebecca (banking and HR) uprooted themselves from Melbourne to live in the Barossa Valley in 2007. While wine drinkers with a special affinity for Barossa red wines, neither had any winemaking background, but they had the good sense to buy the Vinecrest Wines cellar door, and a vineyard with shiraz and cabernet sauvignon the major plantings, and to secure the highly talented Hamish Seabrook as contract winemaker. Exports to China. -JAMES HALLIDAY