Chief Winemaker and Managing Director of DOWIE DOOLE, Chris Thomas has a passion for McLaren Vale and the diversity of the varieties in the region, especially Grenache.Chris’s appreciation for wine and McLaren Vale came from his parents and from many weekend visits to cellar doors in the region. Chris graduated in oenology from the University of Adelaide in 2003 and has a wealth of experience as a result of working for top wineries in McLaren Vale, as well as in Burgundy, France. Chris joined DOWIE DOOLE in 2011, in 2015 purchasing the winery with a group of like-minded shareholders.Chris is responsible for many highly acclaimed wines and has won trophies and numerous gold medals. Under Chris’s leadership, DOWIE DOOLE has become a red 5-star winery and in 2015 it was recognised as one of the ‘Ten Dark Horses’. Chris’s winemaking style is to produce elegant fruit- driven wines that encapsulate the essence of the vineyards in which they were grown and the vintage in which they were produced. In short, Chris captures each wine’s sense of place in a bottle. When not at home making wine, Chris travels the world – Southeast Asia, China, Hong Kong, China, UK, Germany and on and on. A third of the year, Chris is out pounding the pavement, sharing his love for Australian wine. In 2019 Chris graduated from Wine Australia's future leaders programme, where they recognised him as someone ready to step up and take DOWIE DOOLE and the Australian wine industry to the next level.