Lindeman’s Wines | Since 1843 | Winemaking

Few winemakers could claim to know their wines better than Wayne Falkenberg. He joined Lindeman's as an Assistant Winemaker in 1976 and in the past 40 years has witnessed Lindeman's development into one of the largest selling Australian wine brands in the world.

Today, Wayne heads up Lindeman's winemaking team at Lindeman's Karadoc winery in north western Victoria. He has seen the birth and phenomenal success of Lindeman's Bin 65 Chardonnay and today, oversees the majority of the Lindeman's wine range including the Cawarra, Bin Series and Early Harvest wines.

For Wayne, it was an early interest in biochemistry and his connections in the winemaking fraternity that saw him try his hand at winemaking. He was born and raised in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, where his parents grew grapes for a number of wineries in the region. At the encouragement of his uncle, a winemaker, Wayne spent holiday breaks working with some of Australia's greatest winemakers such as Wolfgang Blass, John Glaetzer and Jeff Grosset.

In 1974, Wayne enrolled at Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia and completed his Diploma in Oenology. Two years later he embarked on his career with one of the founders of Australian winemaking, Lindeman's.

As the winemaker of Lindeman's most popular wine range, Wayne has an enormous responsibility and a great challenge to make consistently great tasting wines for everyday enjoyment. He says; "The wines I make are the ones you drink at the end of a satisfying day – at a picnic, a BBQ or accompanying dinner at home. They're probably harder to make than most wines because you've got to be able to reliably produce a wine that is instantly recognisable year in, year out. There's no way Mother Nature can give me the same ingredients - even two years in a row - so every vintage is a new challenge and a new learning opportunity."

"Over the years I've trained a lot of young winemakers. They are invariably keen to make their name producing the best and most expensive wine the world has seen. But I say to them, the most rewarding experience for me is to produce great wine that millions of people will enjoy around the world, every day."

With Lindeman's remarkable global popularity, Wayne has travelled the world to meet our consumers, trade and business partners, including the United Kingdom, Japan and China.

Having led Lindeman's winemaking efforts for four decades, Wayne shares a deep knowledge of Lindeman's winemaking history and heritage, a perspective of longevity and consistency and knack for ensuring that Lindeman's stays true to its wine style, while remaining innovative and responding to the changing tastes of our consumers world-wide.