Hunter Valley winery Lake's Folly doesn't hype its wines - they speak for themselves

In short, there is none. Zilch.

No marketing, no advertising, no press releases - "we've never spent a red cent on any of that stuff," winemaker Rod Kempe says - and social media is limited to say the least.

Wine shows are a no-no too. In their 59 years they've only ever entered one bottle, their 2011 chardonnay, in a wine show - and only then at the request of a local wine writer for the prestigious Six Nations Wine Challenge.

It was up against some of the finest chardonnays from New Zealand, United States, South Africa, Argentina and Chile - and sure enough, Lake's Folly took top prize ... and hasn't entered a show since.

No phone call to a local journo, or maybe to NBN? Not a word.

They don't do discounts, either. It's $876 a case, which is about to go up to $936 - that's a hefty $78 a bottle. Having said that, for wines of this quality it's a bit of a snip anyway. There's no shortage of wines with a lot less pedigree charging way more than that these days.

And finally, for a region renowned for semillon and shiraz, they've produced almost entirely chardonnay and cabernet.

Add it all together and surely it equals disaster ... 'Houston, we have a problem'.

So, how come this unassuming Hunter Valley icon has not just survived the best part of six decades - it turns 60 next year - but is clearly thriving? Lake's Folly is generally accepted as one of the most profitable boutique operations in the country.

Already this year, like it does pretty much every year, the little white sign has gone up on their Broke Road gate - "Sorry we are all sold out, next release April" - with much of their 4500 cases going to their loyal and sizable membership base.

Promotion, advertising, who needs it?

Winemaker Kempe apologises when he arrives a couple of minutes late for our chat, because he's been caught up out in the vines battling snails.

"We have a massive snail infestation at the moment," he explains. "Honestly, the Hunter has to be the most inconsistent place on the planet to grow grapes. If it's not the birds or the bats, or the kangaroos, the hail, the locusts or the drought... then it's the snails coming for you."

Kempe has been chief winemaker for 22 years, only the third in the winery's history.

The secret of their success?

"Quality," he says.

"This is a premium site. All around the world it's the same ... the best sites, the best vineyards produce the best wine. The Hunter's no different.

"There are plenty of winemakers who'd love to have the fruit quality we get. We want that quality to be represented in the bottle, so we don't take any shortcuts and we don't tinker around too much."

And if it ain't broke ...

"I've also had the same staff with me here for more than 20 years. It's not because I'm a nice bloke - I can be a pain at times because I'm demanding, I know that - but I think they respect that. This place has such a history of producing quality wine and I don't want to drop the ball on my watch.

"And it's a team effort. Everyone who works here takes pride in what Lake's Folly represents. We're all pushing to make the best wine we can - elegant, sophisticated wines that can live a long time."

Wine trends for bigger, more powerful wines, or oakier wines for example, are ignored out of hand.

"We stick to our house style," Kempe says.

"There are what ... maybe 180 wine producers in the Hunter? And we're one of the very few that does 100 per cent estate fruit.

"It's all what we grow here and made in our style ... that doesn't change. In many ways it's a bit like Groundhog Day."

To be fair, there has been the odd tweak over the years, but nothing major.

It started about a decade back when he brought out a second chardonnay - grown on the hill and slightly more minerally than the original Estate chardonnay which is grown on the flat on the other side of winery.

And more recently they've added a shiraz, but in true Lake's Folly style, only when the quality meets their exacting standards. Why a shiraz after all this time of having just their revered cabernet as the sole red?

"Back in 2007 our owner bought the land next door in case we ever needed to expand," Kempe explains.

"There was this little patch of shiraz up near the road that had been let go and needed a lot of work - the vines were 70 years old, older than Lake's Folly itself, and were struggling.

"It's very exposed up there, a really tough site. It gets smacked about by the hot westerly winds, the topsoil is quite thin, and when it hails it invariably seems to suffer.

"Still, we found that when the conditions are okay it could produce exceptional fruit. But to put it in perspective, it's very small, maybe only two-and-a-half acres, and since we bought it we've only produced four vintages - 2017, 2018, 2019 and the 2021."

Before it was ever made available for sale, it had to undergo a stringent quality test.

So Kempe sent his assistants out to buy the best shiraz they could lay their hands on from all around the valley for a blind tasting.

He invited a group of tasters - mostly fellow winemakers but also a couple of enthusiastic wine lovers - to measure how the 2017 and 2018 Lakes Folly Hill Block Shiraz stacked up against the 20 other wines premium Hunter wines.

The verdict? Kempe prefers not to go into detail, but it clearly did well enough for Lake's Folly not to just add it to their portfolio, but also its accompanying $110 price tag.

"Our members have really gone for it," he admits in somewhat of an understatement.

"It doesn't have the history of our cabernet and chardonnay, and there's a lot less of it, but we view it sitting right up there alongside the other two."

Because of its limited production it's hard to see it ever rivalling the famed cabernet and chardonnays for popularity.

Wine storage company Wine-Ark is largely used by serious wine collectors - it's where wines are stored in ideal, temperature-controlled conditions - and it invariably lists both the Lake's Folly cabernet and chardonnay among their most collected wines nationally.

So, despite Lake's Folly increasing their wine range from two wines to four, does Kempe miss the opportunity to spread his creative wings further, the way many others winemakers can with much larger wine ranges?

"Absolutely. I'd love a Huon Valley pinot or some outstanding riesling to play around with for example, but live by the sword die by the sword. I come in this place every day aware of its history, and the quality of its fruit and I wouldn't swap it, no way."

It's clearly a rewarding job.

"For sure, but it has its tough moments too. Because of rain we didn't pick a single cabernet grape this year. Not one.

"There's usually banter out in the vines, people laughing and joking. But this year it was like a funeral out there, absolute silence, you could hear a pin drop. It was heart-breaking because this place means a lot to us, to all of us."

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