Now he and his family run one of Australia's highest-altitude winegrowing ventures at 2105 metres above sea level at Nashdale in Orange Region.

The Svenson De Salis brand is named after their ancestor Leopold Fabius Count Fane De Salis, an Oxford-educated Englishman, born in Florence in 1816 who migrated to Australia in 1840 and first settled in in the Canberra district. He later became a magistrate and an MP and extended his landholdings to the Murrumbidgee area and Queensland.

Charlie Svenson, 62, has a comparably eventful history, being born in Canada, where his father was an oil company executive.

After Charlie had his first seven years in Toronto, an oil company posting back to Australia saw the family return to Sydney. There Charlie went to school but, hampered by dyslexia, he quit and left home at 17 to work in the Queensland fishing industry. That experience led, after his marriage to Sydney girl Loretta, to the pair managing a 140-tonne Queensland lobster fishing boat for two years and then buying an export crayfish and Spanish mackerel trawler.

The arrival of children put an end to that, bringing a 1987 family shift to Sydney and jobs for Charlie as a radio operator and cab driver. Then, at 32, he set about earning an HSC through night-time TAFE study followed by a University of NSW microbiology degree.

That led to a UNSW research post on ethanol fuel and an amateur winemaking partnership with two wine-loving uni colleagues. Each vintage the trio towed a trailer to an Orange vineyard, hand-picked a load of grapes and made them into wine in a Sydney Northern Beaches garage.

This and tutelage from Orange Canobolas-Smith winemaker Murray Smith igniting a burning desire in Charlie and Loretta to own their own vineyards and winery - an ambition advanced in 2007 when Charlie left UNSW for a Charles Sturt University research job in Orange.

In 2008 he and Loretta bought the 9-ha 1990-planted Lofty vineyard, producing their first De Salis vintage from its grapes in 2001. Five years ago they added the 7-ha Forest Edge vineyard.

Today De Salis produces a fine portfolio of cool-climate wine and it's very much a family affair with Charlie as "executive winemaker", Loretta in charge of cellar door, son Ben sales and marketing manager and Mitch head winemaker.

BROKENWOOD'S Forest Edge wines showcase the quality of the Orange grapes bought from De Salis and this delightful green-tinted straw, paw-paw and hazelnut-scented De Salis 2018 Chardonnay gives further proof. The front palate has intense nectarine flavour, the middle melon, lemon curd, mineral and creamy oak and the finish slatey acid.

PRICE: $55.

DRINK WITH: scallops.

AGEING: seven years.

RATING: 5 stars

A BLEND of 62% merlot, 25% cabernet sauvignon and 13% cabernet franc, the De Salis 2016 M Red has 13.8% alcohol, vivid crimson hues and berry pastille aromas. The front palate shows smooth mulberry flavour, the middle palate cassis, briar, truffle and savoury oak and the finish chalky tannins. The wines are all on desaliswines.com.au.

PRICE: $55.

DRINK WITH: rack of lamb.

AGEING: 10 years.

RATING: 5 stars

THIS vibrant De Salis 2016 Pinot Noir registers 13.3% alcohol, shines ruby red in the glass and has rose petal scents. The front palate displays bright, lifted strawberry flavour and pomegranate, cranberry, spice and subtle vanillin oak chime in on the middle palate. Minty tannins come through at the finish.

PRICE: $47.

DRINK WITH: barbecued duck and balsamic dressing.

AGEING: eight years.

RATING: 4.5 stars

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