Established just recently in 2007, we are a small family owned and operated business. Max Petronio has been passionate about wines from a young age and claims that his interest was sparked initially by his parents, having taken him on wine tours through the King Valley as part of, and at the time, the family’s annual ski holidays. It was not until 1996, half way through an introductory course to winemaking, that Max was given an opportunity to enter into the wine industry by gaining employment at Yarra Ridge winery in the Yarra Valley. That same year saw Max enrolled in the Bachelor of Applied Science (Wine Science) course at Charles Sturt University by correspondence.

Due to full time work commitments in Melbourne, it took Max the best part of nine years to complete the wine science degree. In recent years Max has been working at a friend’s boutique winery located at Yering in the Yarra Valley, gaining valuable experience in boutique wine making and operations. It is with thanks to our dear friend Alan who has given Max the opportunity to use winery facilities to produce wines under our Petronio label. The wines have been made from small parcels of fruit sourced locally from the region and come from low yielding 16 year old vines.

The Yarra Valley has been a second home to Max and it is our aim at Petronio Wines to produce small amounts of high quality handcrafted wines from single vineyard fruit which show the classic Yarra Valley style of moderate alcohol, elegance and balance. With wines made from single vineyard fruit, enters the thought of ‘vintage variability’ in ones mind and the ‘forces of mother nature’ that contribute to this variability. It is this variability, which challenges us as winemakers, but also provides us with the opportunity to show how wines can potentially differ structurally from year to year.