About
Crooked Mick, Reared in Regionality
Australian legend Crooked Mick lives in the Spee’Wah, a fictitious place located anywhere the storyteller wants it to be.
Crooked Mick wine, however, is born of designated regions of Australia. Selected for their distinctive and quality grapes, each region has varied climates, soils, and topography that create different flavours, textures and acidity in each varietal.
The Murray Darling Region of New South Wales and Victoria has a warm climate with ample sunshine resulting in berry flavours in reds and tropical characters in white wines; Langhorne Creek, located in South Australia, is a low-lying region with consistent winds that prevent damaging frost; South Australia’s McLaren Vale wine region has diverse soils and a Mediterranean climate that produce top-quality grapes.
Together, this triad creates opportunities for our wines that, like the Spee’Wah, have no known boundaries.
Gary Compton — Senior Red Winemaker
Senior Red Winemaker Gary grew up just 10km from our Irymple winery.
Since beginning his career in vintage in 1985, Gary has worked as Senior Winemaker at Evans and Tate, Kingston Estate, and Neqtar Wines, in addition to working at Deakin Estate and Constellation’s Stanley winery. The multi-award-winning winemaker has also studied wine, graduating with a Wine Science degree from Charles Sturt University and a Winery Cellar Procedures Certificate.
Gary has been Senior Red Winemaker at Crooked Mick since 2008.
Pia Merrik — Senior White Winemaker
Senior White Winemaker Pia has researched and contributed to winemaking all over the world. She has worked as a Sommelier and received a Higher Certificate of Wine & Spirit in England, undertaken vintages in Chile and France, and run a successful wine education business in her home country of Finland.
She has also mastered winemaking in Australia, having worked with Andrew Pirie at Tamar Ridge specialising in sparkling wine in Tasmania, completing her Advanced Wine Assessment Course at Australian Wine Research Institute in South Australia, studying Wine Science in New South Wales, and winemaking and working with fruit in Western Australia.
Pia has been involved with judging in number of wine shows, including the Royal Adelaide Wine Show and the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology. She has contributed to significant industry research, and she has continued her studies since commencing at Crooked Mick in 2019.
Utku Gundogdu — Winemaker
Utku Gundogdu started his career as a winemaker after graduating with a degree in food science and engineering in his home country of Turkey.
After working in wine production in Turkey, he received a Master’s Degree on viticulture and oenology from Montpellier SupAgro INRA winemaking school of France and Madrid Polytechnic University of Spain. During this period, he practiced and studied European-style winemaking.
He has worked at Stags’ Leap Winery in Napa Valley and with commercial brands such as Villa Maria and Oysters Bay. He has been working for Crooked Mick since 2020.