Brisbane boy Greg Cooley followed the traditional path to winemaking via accountancy, fraud squad, corporate investigations, running a Wendy’s Supa Sundaes Franchise and then selling residential real estate! In his own words, he left the property market in Brisbane in 2001 (just as the boom started) and moved to the beautiful Clare Valley in South Australia (about when the wine glut started) - to live and work in one of the best wine regions in Australia.
He found his life’s passion in wine and undertook studies in Wine Science at Charles Sturt University while working on pruning gangs and bottling lines, before joining Reilly’s Wines in 2003 where he currently works part-time alongside winemaker Justin Ardill. He is passionate about wine and loves to wear it as much as drink it!
Greg Cooley Wines red wines are made at Reilly’s winery at Mintaro where Greg uses a combination of owned and existing infrastructure and our barrels are stored on-site. Whites are made under Greg’s direction at Paulett’s, Neagles Rock and Kirrihill Wines in collaboration with other winemakers where wines are stored in tank.
In 2001 he released his first vintage of Greg Cooley Wines (a name which took ages to think-tank) and since then he’s established a successful stable of quantity, hand crafted wines...albeit with some weird and wacky names.
Kelli Shanahan - Sales & Marketing