About Wilimee
Wilimee is a small family-run vineyard in the Macedon Ranges.
Our philosophy is simple: we make great wine.
At an altitude of 600m, the cool climate is perfect for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
We hand pick the grapes that we grow on rare Cambrian soil, some of the oldest in Australia. The vineyard is next to a sacred quarry, once mined for its greenstone, which was used to make stone axes by the Wurundjeri people. Wilimee Moor-ing means 'Place of Stone Axe'.
Our vines were planted in 1982, making them some of the oldest in the Macedon Ranges.
About us
We are winemaker Ben Ranken and interior architect Sally Richardson. We moved to beautiful Wilimee in the Macedon Ranges in 2013, days before our second daughter was born.
Country kids ourselves, we feel so fortunate to be back on the land, raising our children with their toes in the soil.
It’s a simple life we’re after: home-grown veges, wholefoods and Sunday walks through the bush.
We approach winemaking with a minimalist hand. We use natural wild yeasts, natural malolactic fermentation with no fining and without filtration, plus we rack the wines by the moon cycle. Uniquely each year approximately 20% of the bottled Pinot Noir is matured underwater for a period of 5 years. First release of our underwater wine was September 2021 for the 2015 vintage Pinot Noir.
Our natural approach, combined with our years of experience and the unique geological footprint of our land, has resulted in great wine that we are so proud of.
We look forward to sharing it with you.
About Ben Ranken, winemaker
Ben has extensive experience in winemaking, having worked in many regions across Australia, France and the United States. His wine has won awards such as top ten in Australia at the James Halliday Challenge and Wine of Show at the Victorian Wine Show. Ben was also a finalist in the 2018/19/20/21 Winemaker Young Gun of Wine competition, winning the inaugral 2021 Vigneron Award. Also Wilimee was finalist in the 2021 Best Vineyard Award.
He attributes his passion for wine to growing up on a family farm and vineyard in Tumbarumba, at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains in NSW. Wine-making goes even further back in Ben's family with George Ranken planting some of the first vines in Australia at Bathurst, NSW, in 1841.
Ben honed his winemaking skills under the best possible tutelage of Steve Webber of De Bortoli in the Yarra Valley.
Other memorable experiences include working in Burgundy at Domaine Michel Juillot in 2003, where every meal, even breakfast, was enjoyed in the cellar with a glass of wine. A year later in 2004 Ben worked in the Pic Saint Loup, near Montpellier, at Domaine Clavel and in Pomerol in 2006 at Chateau Lafleur.
