FOR five generations, a single estate – flanked by lanky gums which follow the Goulburn River as it winds through the countryside near Nagambie – has been a sanctuary for the Purbrick family.
The property is home to Tahbilk Winery, the oldest family-owned winery in Victoria and the home of one of Australia's most celebrated wine labels abroad.
But stepping into the role of vigneron hasn't been a foregone choice for any of the Purbricks over the generations.
Each has found their own way behind the cellar door despite having other career plans.
According to current estate manager Alister Purbrick – who fits into the picture as the fourth generation – he was equally blindsided by his inner aspiration to become a winemaker after eyeing a career in politics throughout school.
"We were sitting down for Christmas lunch in 1971," Mr Purbrick said."I'd just got through my school final exams and we didn't have the results yet, and my grandfather (Eric) posed a question to me out of the blue.
"He said, 'Well Alister, what are you going to do next year?' and I just blurted out 'Well, grandfather, I've decided to become a winemaker'.
"And of course there was pandemonium and much celebration after I said this, but the reality was that I hadn't really thought it through."
Although this declaration didn't have the surprise effect on his father that he'd hoped (his father, John, had already secured for Alister an interview at Roseworthy Agricultural College), it proved a pivotal point in transitioning the family business through to the next generation and allowed his father to further the label's marketing and sales off-property.
At the tender age of 24, Mr Purbrick took over the management of Tahbilk – a job that included preserving and expanding the historic operation.
Tahbilk was one of the first areas of the Goulburn Valley to be pegged, as it lay on the original route forged between Melbourne and Sydney.
In 1860, Melbourne businessman John Pinney Bear and other investors purchased the land with the grand design of planting one million vines.
The original cellar and accompanying winery buildings were erected that same year, overseen by Swiss-French winemakers who were installed to manage the new winery.
It was their influence which resulted in Tahbilk becoming home to the only European-style underground wine cellar in Australia, which features an arched brick roof not seen in any other colonial wineries that sprang up around that time and which is still functional today.
Fifteen years later, the Purbrick family entered the picture.
"The second cellar was excavated and built in 1875 by my grandfather's third cousin, James Purbrick, so although we didn't own the place back then, that was the family's first association with the winery," Mr Purbrick said.
The horse-drawn carts used to remove the 20,000 cubic yards of soil are still at Tahbilk today, along with a local steam engine and countless other pieces of memorabilia that help preserve and showcase the winery's history.
More buildings were erected as the property was further developed in the following years but it wasn't until 1925 that the name Purbrick officially appeared on the land title.
Entrepreneur and politician Reginald Purbrick (Alister's great-grandfather) purchased the property from the Bear family with the idea of capitalising on the area's dairying potential.
While he had no love for the vines, his son Eric held fond memories of Tahbilk from his adolescence.
While a student at Cambridge University, Eric convinced his father to keep the vines and over the better part of the next two decades prevented Tahbilk succumbing to a number of other ventures.
Eric moved to Australia to take over the property in the early 1930s and managed to resurrect the run-down winery during the Great Depression, eventually building Tahbilk's reputation to such heights that Queen Elizabeth sipped Tahbilk wine after her coronation in 1953.
Since then Mr Purbrick has expanded the business to include many more labels and added eco-tours and environmental sustainability to the property's achievements.
Yet only recently has the next generation of Purbrick taken an interest.
Mr Purbrick's daughter Hayley graduated from university with a degree in agriculture and worked for accountancy firm Ernst & Young, where she refined her business management skills.
But while preparations were being made for the winery's 150th anniversary in 2010, the pull of the family business proved too strong.
"She said, 'Look Dad, I'd love to be a part of the 150th celebrations', and I said 'You'd have to leave Ernst &Young to do that', and she said 'Yep, I'll do it', and that was that," Mr Purbrick said.
Since then, a sixth generation has been added to the family with the birth of Hayley's son Alby, who Mr Purbrick hopes will also show an interest in the vines one day.
"As far as Tahbilk is concerned, it's become the Purbrick family's spiritual home and sanctuary, whether you're working in the business or not," he said.
