Tom (T): I was brought up in St. Louis and started my wine career in Chicago , but have distant family with a winery in Germany. I stayed with them for a couple weeks and really thought ‘wine’s awesome’. So I got into the business working in sales, then up through the ranks in merchandising, grocery stores, fine wine territories, got the wine bug doing tastings and events, and started looking at what else could I do. I researched wine schools around the world, and chose the University of Adelaide where I did a Master of Wine Business degree, and that’s where I met Pete. After uni I worked a couple of harvests, but I’m more into the distribution and sales side of the business. At uni, I started working with Jackson Family wines, who owned Yangarra Estate Vineyard. I was based out of Australia for 11 years and then moved with them to Tokyo 9 years ago, where I now live Australia) and then an Oenology Degree in Adelaide, where I met Tom. After uni there’s this rite of passage for Australian winemakers that sees many graduate and run off overseas ‒ the majority of whom find their way to America. With my European passport I went to Bordeaux, where I worked 2 seasons, followed by vintages in Chile and Argentina, and then a couple of seasons in Crimea, Ukraine, working for Jacques Lurton wine consultancy. The second season ran a bit short due to impending Russian occupation and the company had us leave. Luckily, I could join a mate doing vintage in Abruzzo, Italy, before coming back to Australia where I worked for Taltarni (Pyrenees, Victoria) and at Clover Hill (Tasmania), making sparkling for 6 years, before shifting to Clare Valley as head winemaker at Kilikanoon. Many wine lovers and professionals in the field, including our own Village Cellars staff, have toyed with the idea of setting up their own wine brand. Over a few fine wines, the ideas are always great, the possibilities boundless, but actually building a brand is where dreams meet reality. For Tom Kreigshauser and Peter Warr, after many years of talking, that jump was taken in 2021. With their deep experience in the industry, boundless enthusiasm and a passion for sharing the enjoyment of wine, they created TOPE (TOm & PEte). Their journey̶ almost the script for a wine buddy movie ̶ weaves together two very individual stories into fresh approaches to creating delicious Clare Valley wines. And a working model for all of us dreamers? 〈Interviewer: Dion Lenting (Kiwi Copy), April 2026〉and work.Peter (P): I grew up all around Australia. Dad was military, and we saw plenty of the country. Dad was an Irishman who drank wine and mum’s family is French, so wine was part of every meal. I did an IT degree, then decided it wasn't for me. While treading water I worked in hospitality, always had a passion for wine, and went off and did a viticulture degree at UWA (University of Western CODE12863TOPE 100 Osmond Riesling 2023 (Screw Cap)Varietal: Riesling Alc. 11.6%; Residual Sugar 0.59g/L T : At uni, we lived about 2 blocks away from each other. The 100 Osmond Riesling is named for the address of the house I lived in at uni, a wine student house. That house became a bit of an institution, a lot of barbecues, big wine nights, tastings, and other activities. Pete came over one day and we started chatting and drinking Riesling in the backyard, saying “one day we’ll make this.” After uni we both went our own ways, different careers and paths, and when Pete came back to Australia in 2014-15, I was living in Melbourne and we continued chatting about the project. In February 2020, while I was visiting Australia, we got to the point of “hey, let’s do this project next year, let’s start it.” In 2021 we formed a wine business, got an ABN (Australian Business Number), bought some fruit and away we went. In 2022, we made our first Riesling, and launched our first wines at the end of the year. P : Tom and I always enjoyed Riesling, and while at uni I was working at Petaluma in the Adelaide Hills. One of their flagship wines was the Hanlin Hill Riesling, a Clare Valley Vineyard. Tom and I drank a lot of Riesling in the backyard and we always talked about the purity of fruit, and how you could make complex but not challenging wines from great vineyards with a really good, beautiful expression. That’s what we always wanted. When we agreed ‘let’s do it’, it was a happy coincidence. I’d been in the Clare Valley for 3 years, found my groove and could see that pathway to do it easily and well. I've got a cellar that I could oversee and good friends who are viticulturists with access to good fruit. Talk is one thing, but sourcing the right vineyards and having them available when you want is critical. T : We had $5 in our bank account, so that also helped. The other thing I really love about Clare is the community. All of our wines are from single vineyard sites, each of them owned and farmed by people who live on them, and we have good connections with all of them. They have an emotional and financial attachment to their vineyards, it’s their livelihood and children’s inheritance, and they get immaculately looked after. It’s really nice just to see the community coming together because wine is about people, and that’s critical to build our brand culture.CODE13306TOPE Dual Citizen Riesling 2024 (Screw Cap)Varietal: Riesling Alc. 10.4%; Residual Sugar 1.88g/LVillage Cellars Wine Catalogue 2026SummerWhat are your backgrounds? So how did TOPE come about?How did you go about putting TOPE together, and why Clare Valley? －10－RRP￥3,400RRP￥3,600Riesling nearing harvest, February 2026Left: Limestone Vineyard (100 Osmond)Right: Rosedale Vineyard (Dual Citizen)What it Takes to Realize Your Winemaking Dream: Passion, Meticulous Planning, and TimingPeter Warr (Co-founder & Winemaker)Tom Kreigshauser (Co-founder & Storyteller)Our feature story: TOPE (Clare Valley, South Australia)
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