Growing up in Kumeu, in the heart of the winegrowing area North West of Auckland, it was no surprise that Brett developed a love of wine. In school and university holidays he worked at local wineries, and after working a vintage in California, he joined Selaks in 1992 as a Cellar Hand. With the support of the Selaks family he later took leave to complete a Graduate Diploma in Oenology at the University of Adelaide, and was appointed Winemaker in 1999.
He is now Selaks Head Winemaker based in Hawke’s Bay, where he set up the Selaks winery. Brett is immensely proud of Selaks and what it stands for. While passionate about all the Selaks family of wines, Brett has a particular affinity for barrel fermented Chardonnay. “West Auckland in the 1980’s saw the birth of some of New Zealand’s great barrel fermented Chardonnays, and these wines became benchmarks for me” he says.
