Pat Ciccone

CICCONE ESTATE

Pat Ciccone

Ask Pat Ciccone if a life dedicated to wine was his first choice and he'll surprisingly admit attempting accounting - 'But, I realised I didn't like it at all,' he divulges, 'Unfortunately, I decided that at the end of my degree.'

Luckily for Pat, such a back flip proved anything but detrimental. The lure of the King Valley convinced this self-confessed country-boy-at-heart to head back from the big smoke and jump into an initiation in viticulture.

He was hardly a stranger to wine. Ever since his father planted two acres of shiraz grapes in 1968, the Ciccones had produced a peppery red, then reserved for the likes of family and friends only.

Harking from the South of Italy, Antonio Ciccone and his extended relatives road-tested other locations in Victoria before settling on the traditionally cool climate King Valley in the North East. The decision was a no-brainer: This valley - with its vineyards, olive groves and livestock - recalled the pastoral tranquillity of their Italian homeland.

'It's a beautiful part of the world,' says Pat, who's indulged in considerable overseas travel and believes nothing surpasses North East Victoria. 'There are such amazing contrasts here, even in terms of the kinds of wine being produced from one region to the next.'

In 1995, Pat extended the business on his father's land, Ciccone Estate, into its current commercial mould. Today, amply aided by his younger brother Joe, the vines are still flourishing, with the cellar door & café established off-site at the old butcher shop in Milawa where they get to capitalise on the traffic travelling through the gourmet region.

Seems that, with choosing accounting, Pat Ciccone was simply denying the inevitable. Even his famous Ciccone cousin, pop star Madonna, has wine flowing in her blood. 'I was speaking to her father last year,' admits Pat. 'He's got a vineyard in Michigan also called "Ciccone" and his name's "Tony" like my dad.' Some successes are just fated.

Ciccone Wines

Cellar Door & Café

62 Milawa-Bobinawarrah Road

Milawa VIC

Ph: 03 5727 3878

www.cicconewines.com.au