Robert Prior recently took some time out with Merv and Judy Lange, founders of Alkoomi Wines. If you think owning a winery is glamorous, think again. Merv and Judy are self-taught and built their winery from the ground up. Here is their fascinating story.

Our conversation started like this ...

As I understand your history Merv, you planted your first vines in Frankland River in 1971 as a sideline to your existing farming property – and you didn’t even drink wine at the time!

What happened in the lead-up to this?

In the late 1960's we were farming sheep on the family farm that had been split between myself and 2 of my brothers. We made some money by wheeling and dealing in sheep, however the wool price was low in the late 1960's so we needed to diversify.

We wanted to use up 20 acres for something else. So we went to the Department of Agriculture for advice. We probably would have gone with whatever they suggested. If they said plant strawberries, then that’s what we would have done. However, they suggested that we plant grapes for wine – so that’s what we did.

Who helped you in the beginning?

We sought advice as to where to plant the initial vines, but we didn’t like the site they had chosen as it didn’t suit our sheep farm. Instead we planted elsewhere that suited us. We started by planting 2½ acres in 1971, then a further 5 acres in 1972. We continued to plant every year until 1978 and 20 acres were planted.

Our first planting was cabernet, followed next year by riesling and malbec. We didn’t even know whether they would produce red or white wine at the time! The malbec vines actually came from leftover stock from the plantings down the road, which is now Houghtons.

We made our first wines in 1976 through Plantagent Wines. It wasn’t until 1978 that we set up our own winery and started winemaking ourselves.

The best advice we received was is 1973 from Jack Mann who set up Houghtons. I asked him how much wine should we make and he told me, “not one more bottle than you think you can sell.”

How did you establish a name for yourselves?

All of WA wine produced in the 1970s was sold in Perth. We went around the city ourselves and managed to arrange for one liquor store (Broadway Liquor in Nedlands) and one restaurant (which is now Matilda Bay but was called El Sombero at the time) to stock and sell our wines. They still sell Alkoomi wines today. It wasn’t until 1981 when we found a distributor in Perth to do this work for us.

We initially wanted to call ourselves “West Frankland Wines” but weren’t allowed this name. So we decided instead to go with “Alkoomi” after the farm name.

“Alkoomi” means “a place we choose". The farm property was already named this by the original farmers, before my parents bought the property in 1946.

How did you manage to get through the tough times financially?

The farm still had a debt on it after we took it on and I’ve never been a great one to borrow money. However there was one time in the early days where we needed some machinery for the vineyard operation, which we were obviously expanding. We only needed about $5,000 or so, which wasn’t a lot of money even back then, but we just didn’t have the cash.

We went to our bank manager and asked him for a loan. I remember him saying no, which got me really angry. So I told the bank manager what I thought of him and stormed out, slamming his door behind me. We ended up making the money ourselves through good sheep trading and Judy worked off farm. Plus we just managed to make do without a lot of things.

How did you go with marketing?

The first label we used was designed at the Albany Advertiser in 1976. We used the grass tree image then and have kept that ever since. The current label we have been using since 1986 was designed by a firm in Perth. The designer even came down to the winery to look around before coming up with it. We actually didn’t like his design when he showed us at first - so we went for a walk, had a coffee, had a think about it and it grew on us.

We used a mailing list up to the 1980's. We opened a cellar door in Albany in 1982 and applied for a producer’s license as we had more than 2 acres under vine. This allowed us to keep Albany as a cellar door, which we still operate today.

We approached a new distributor in the 1980's, who are now called Fine Wine Wholesalers, and we still use them. Journalists started to write up Australian wines from the wine shows and, with the wines often being listed alphabetically, we were always at the top which was definitely helpful.

Any words of advice?

Anyone can do this but they need to make exceptional wines at reasonable prices. If you were to score selling wine out of 10 - growing grapes would account for 1 out of the 10, turning grapes into wine would be 2 out of the 10 and marketing would be the other 7. And this has been the same for 25 years. Competition is only increasing, so it’s all about marketing your products to get them sold.

Also, don’t over commit and put a noose around your neck.

What’s your favorite wine?

As for a favourite drop, I don’t have one. I enjoy all types of wines from all over the world. Vasse FeIix would probably be my favourite WA winery, but I must say the shiraz and riesling from the Great Southern are world class.