Allies is a collaboration between Barney Flanders and David Chapman.

We started in restaurants but our wine evolution began about ten years ago. Barney (below right) graduated from Charles Sturt University (Wine Science) in 1999 and has since worked on the Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley, Trentino, Sonoma and Cote Rotie. David (below left) stopped working full time in restaurants in 2004, is now studying Wine Science at Charles Sturt University and last year worked in Cote Rotie during harvest.



Our mission is to make affordable, high quality wines that reflect our taste in wine. We like wines that show intensity without being over-ripe. Our preference is for subtle, complex wines rather than those with strong mono-dimensional characters. We like the flavours and effect of oak but it must be in sympathy with the fruit intensity. We want our wines to have longevity and believe that they should appear reserved in their youth, as we have found that overly ripe, alcoholic wines, especially Pinot Noirs, rarely age well.

We started making wine together in 2003, 200 cases of Pinot Noir, whilst both working at Moorooduc Estate on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. Our first three vintages were made at Moorooduc, thanks to the generosity of Rick and Jill McIntyre.

Today we produce a little over 1000 cases divided between Viognier, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. In 2006 we made our first Garagiste wines with 150 cases of Pinot Noir and 125 cases of Chardonnay. The Garagiste label is reserved for outstanding vintages, yielding wines of the highest level of complexity and concentration.

In 2006 we also took on the management of the Merricks Grove Vineyard in Merricks North. The vineyard is a well situated and exposed 50 acre block planted to mainly Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. This vineyard is now producing some excellent fruit and is the source of our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines.