At the western end of Beavers Road in suburban Northcote, near Merri Creek and just seven kilometres from the heart of Melbourne, sits one of Australia's major wine operations. In this quiet locality Australia's 16th largest wine producer, publicly listed Normans Wines Ltd., processes, bottles and distributes its entire wine output.

The figures are impressive: the stainless steel tank "farm" at Northcote can store half a million litres of wine with an associated warehousing capacity of 100,000 cases. The three bottling lines, employing 20 locals, can fill, label and package up to 45,000 litres of wine per day, with a potential production of 3 million cases per annum.

Stuart Haby, on-site winemaker, described a wine's progress from the winery to the bottle. Each shipment of wine, stabilised to a temperature of 15 degrees, begins its journey from South Australia in insulated tankers of up to 35,000 litres capacity. Always trucked in the cool of the night, the wine usually arrives in Northcote at around 6.30 a.m. where, still at a 15 degrees, it is pumped into stainless steel storage tanks.

At this stage, said Stuart, "The wine is "cellar bright" but needs a final polish." Accordingly, he tests samples of all incoming wine in his laboratory. Following the quality control process, the wine is passed through a series of in-line filters to the fully automated bottling line. When bottled the wine is cased, palletised and warehoused ready for eventual distribution.

Northcote is clearly an unusual setting for such an enterprise as most bottling plants are normally part of wineries near rural or provincial towns. Normans chief winemaker Peter Fraser showed me round the site and explained why the company had chosen an urban environment, some 800 kilometres from their headquarters in Adelaide and their vineyards in the Riverland and McLaren Vale regions.

"As it's our national distribution centre it's handy to the port of Melbourne for export shipping," said Peter. "We also have easy access to transport facilities for distribution to the eastern seaboard." He added that another advantage of the location is the contracted bottling and packaging services Normans provides to major liquor retailers and to more than 30 Victorian winemakers.

Longridge Sauvignon Blanc 1999

Hawkes Bay, New Zealand. Pale yellow. Aromatic nose of Granny Smith apple and passionfruit. Fruity, quite dry in the mouth - with a touch of zingy acid at the back. Flavour finishes a touch short. Rating: bronze. Cellar: to 2003. Price: around $AUD14. Web: www.longridge.co.nz.

Kelman Semillon 2000

Hunter Valley, New South Wales. Pale, hint of green. Delicate lemon and hay bouquet. Elegant, lighter style, crisply acidic. Would serve well as aperitif or with entrée. Rating: silver. Cellar: to 2003. Price: $AUD17.50. Web: www.kelmanvineyards.com.au.

Curlewis Pinot Noir 1998

Geelong, Victoria. Dark cherry, ruby. Generous lifted smoky nose. Gutsy pinot style, well-weighted, dry and savoury, finishes firm and long. A pinot for red wine drinkers. Very limited supply. Rating: gold. Cellar: to 2006. Price: $AUD29.50.

Normans Chais Clarendon Cabernet Sauvignon 1998

McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Dark, near opaque, purple edge. Warm, spicy nose of oak and blackberry jam. "A lot of grapes went into that bottle" as some of my wine drinking friends are wont to say about such generous styles. Full-on berry fruit concentration leads the charge, soft but lasting tannins lend weight and texture. Needs a few years in the bottle. Rating: gold. Cellar: to 2010. Price: about $AUD38. Web: www.normanswines.com.au.

© Martin Field