Usher Tinkler was born into Hunter Valley wine country but he's pushing the boundaries for a new age of wine consumers

For Usher (John) Tinkler, a vigneron and winemaker in the Hunter Valley, it's become of matter of what to take seriously.

Fun, for instance.

Experimentation, always.

And work, well, that's a given for a person who not only grows grapes but makes wine, too.

Although his grandfather and his father - both known as Usher - were both wine grape growers on the family's extensive farmlands off McDonalds Road, it wasn't Usher's intention to become a winemaker. He was on track to study environmental science, working wineries to pay his way through school.

But he changed his course in life.

"Initially, I was sick of the stress my Dad had trying to sell grapes," he says.

"I thought there has to be a better way than selling grapes. We've got to starting making wine."

Usher and his dad Usher, who is an equal partner in the vineyard with his brother Ian, purchased some old milk vats and started making "a bit of wine".

"I showed them I could do it," he says. Next thing you know they built a winery and bought more tanks. The first vintage for Tinklers Wines was 2002, a difficult year with a small vintage. But in 2003 they won best red wine in NSW. Usher was 24 years old.

Usher (John) still makes the wines for the Tinklers brand, with all of the grapes coming from the brothers' vineyards.

From 2014, young Usher starting making his own modern-style wines from grapes grown on his much smaller holding of vineyards adjacent to the Tinkler brothers' acreage.

"I've been winemaking a long time," he says.

"But I was looking to do my own wine, and initially it was only going to be the reserve wines, the two top wines."

But it wasn't just about the wine. Usher had been eyeing the empty "church" building on McDonalds Road near the vineyards. While it was built as a church in 1901, it had long ceased to function in that capacity and had served as a cellar door for various wineries over the year before falling vacant for about five years.

Usher made an offer on the building and it was accepted. He had a mate renovate it over six months.

"The idea was to do something very modern in such an old wine region," Usher says.

"That was the idea: let's do something really modern, very relaxed, take the pretentiousness out of winetasting.

"At the time it was very much bar service. Nobody was sitting at a table to get a wine tasting, Scarborough [Wines] would have been the only one doing it."

In December 2015 Usher Tinkler's cellar door opened, becoming the trendiest location in the valley almost instantly. The concept was a winner, and continues to thrive to this day. There are six cheeses and six meats on offer at the wine tasting room, served in scrumptious platters with home-made bread, fruit and condiments, and made to match for Usher Tinkler's modern range of wines, all made from grapes grown in his vineyards in the hills behind the church, visible through huge glass windows.

Usher's own wines have been groundbreaking from the beginning. In seven short years, he's created some stunning wines - that is, in the eyes of the public.

His brand was built on two founding concepts: Sociable and authentic.

"Everything had to be very social - the way in which wine was served, and the way that the wines were," he says.

And: "We had to be authentically authentic," he says. "You know, authentically different."

For a young winemaker who had success from the beginning, he had a yearning to break away from the predictable and tradition that came with the industry.

"I got sick of the stereotypes of the Hunter," he says.

"I got sick of being labelled old and boring and conservative as a region. I felt that was not the case."

His wines are flagbearers for a new generation in the valley. He is the first to say he's not a pioneer, he's only using techniques and ideas that have been testing elsewhere in the world and in Australia.

Usher is more influenced by the people who buy his wines (most of his 10,000 cases are sold direct) than by wine critics. And take note: 80 per cent of his wine purchasers are females, aged 25 to 45 years old.

"I certainly was not going out chasing reviews and endorsements," he says of avoiding the traditional path to kudos.

"I don't want to be misguided. Or influenced by that."

And he doesn't enter his wines in shows either, as they don't follow the styles that win medals.

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But he's created an awesome portfolio in a short span:

La Volpe prosecco: First planted in 2013, then expanded in 2016, with more going in this year. This refreshing bubbly is served at Cafe Sydney's Customs House restaurant, and at QT Newcastle and Sydney.

Death by Semillon: His most successful innovation. Launched in 2019, it's been selling out. As he describes the latest vintage: "It spent 2-3 months in barrel, full 'malo', no additions, no filtration." About as natural as you can get.

"The good thing about Death by Semillon [2022 vintage], we left some yeast in there," Usher says.

"So it evolves and changes in the bottle. It's quite cloudy. We want it to evolve and change in the bottle. We're still influencing the flavour and taste of this wine by having the yeast in there.

"Initially we had people freaking out about the haziness of the wine, or the sediment - wine diamonds. That's part of the experience, it takes people to a new place."

Pinot Noir: Sold by the glass at Muse, the famous three-hatted restaurant about 10 minutes' drive from Tinkler's cellar door.

"The pinot we make is phenomenally successful ... A light bodied red. Light, and delicate and fragrant, and everyone just loves it. It's easy to drink," he says.

"We bottle our reds as quickly as we can, the light reds. They're in the barrel for three months. Stuff gets bottled really quickly, we get on the market real quickly.

"It creates a whole different style of red. It's a red that's very fruit driven, very crunchy sort of red. That's something I've never done before. Bottling reds so young. But I love it. They don't have to be big. Make them soft and young, so they are very vibrant and fruit driven. Silky. Silky reds."

Chardonnay: Usher's 2019 Hunter Valley Reserve Chardonnay is #78 on the list of Australia's Top 100 wines for 2021 by James Suckling. There's not much more that needs to be said. Scoring 96 out of 100, the notes say, "As good a chardonnay as anyone has made in the Hunter Valley, this has fresh and intense lemon and peach aromas with flint and integrated oak. The palate is wound tight with tangy peach and citrus flavours. Long, zesty finish."

This year, a wine writer acquaintance he bumped into encouraged him to send a box of his wines to James Halliday for review. He did, for the first time. Now, Usher Tinkler Wines are on the short list for Best Value Winery in the 2023 Halliday Wine Awards.

It's been one helluva ride for Usher. Creating a brand that ran against tradition and jumped head-first over a cliff of experimentation, hoping to fall into a crowd of consumers eager for something new - lighter, fruitier, more textural, more fun.

"I could use a rest after the last seven years," he says.

"I think we're just breathing now, starting to breathe again."