There’s many elements that go into creating a good wine and it’s the winemaker’s job to blend them together to create the perfect drop. WA’s Rosenthal Wines’ winemakers are themselves a special blend because they’re not just winemakers and business partners – they’re also best friends.
Coby Ladwig and Luke Eckersley first met 25 years ago when they were at Uni.
“It was the very first day of the winemaking and viticulture degree and everyone had to stand up and introduce themselves to the class,” recalls Coby.
“Luke stood up and said he was a butcher and I thought, wow, that’s pretty unusual. He’d already done some study in horticulture and I’d already done a year of zoology and when we started to chat we hit it off instantly. We’ve been best mates ever since.”
Even after leaving University, and regardless of where their separate winemaking careers took them, the two men stayed in close contact.
Coby’s career led him to work in several of WA’s Great Southern wineries while Luke worked as a winemaker in California and France before finally returning to WA to work in Margaret River.
Luke says he and Coby were always on the lookout for opportunities to work together and Coby was finally able to lure Luke to the Great Southern via a job that required a wee bit of trickery.
“A local winery was looking for a winemaker and the manager was heavily involved in the local footy club so I told him about Luke and that he played footy. In truth, Luke couldn’t play footy at all,” Coby says laughing.
As is often the way with contract winemakers the two bounced between numerous wineries and when girlfriends, then wives and children, arrived on the scene Coby and Luke were still almost joined at the hip.
“We’d hang out at work then hang out after work and we’d call each other many times a day. I’d even refer to Luke as ‘my husband’,” Coby says with a chuckle.
One of the companies the pair were making contract wines for was Rosenthal Wines so when the label came up for sale in 2013 Coby and Luke jumped in and bought it.
“When we first started working together I’d drive to work every morning with a huge smile on my face because I was thinking, ‘Wow this is so good – I’m working with my best friend’,” Coby says.
“We’d always talked about doing something of our own together and now we actually were. It was such a great feeling. We currently produce our wines at West Cape Howe Winery’s Mt Barker facility and still do some contract wines for other wineries.”
The wine industry has provided a roller coaster ride for the pair and they both agree things in the Australian wine industry are a little tough at the moment.
“There’s currently a national oversupply but WA is such a small fish as we only produce around four per cent of the national crush,” Luke explains.
“Fortunately that means that the local wine industry is slightly insulated. We get a little bit of a hangover from the glut but generally we sort of operate a bit outside of it.”
Through the many ups and downs that come with running a business Coby and Luke’s friendship has remained as strong as ever and they say they’ve found the perfect balance in their partnership. Coby primarily takes care of the front end (sales, marketing and distribution) while Luke is more involved in the production end. But both men are quick to point out that these are not hard and fast roles and that most things are done in collaboration – especially when it comes to creating wine blends.
With more than a dozen varieties in the Rosenthal brand, and with Coby and Luke firmly at the helm, it’s fair to say that every wine has been blended with a generous splash of friendship.
