Gentle Folk

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Gentle Folk symbol as an official Mattinson 10-Star Winery.

Gentle Folk is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery — Campbell Mattinson's highest honour.
Founded by two marine scientists turned winemakers, it has become, in barely a decade, one of the most in-demand labels in Australian wine.

Gentle Folk makes beautiful wine, consistently, and in remarkably short order has become one of Australia's best wineries. Its Chardonnay is the true measure of the range — both as an Adelaide Hills blend and, more remarkably, as single-site releases — while its barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc (grown at 500+ metres above sea level) is one of the most serious, textural takes on the variety made anywhere in the country. Pinot Noir matches them stride for stride, and Syrah and Sangiovese round things out, the former, in particular routinely magical.

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Gentle Folks reviews on this site.
Gentle Folk reviews on The Winefront site (86 reviews).

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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