15/09/2026
Between vintage, setting up our own bottling line and caring for our estates, we missed introducing someone new to us at Tscharke Wines.
Introducing Siyuan (Olivia) Hua, our w**emaker.
Olivia grew up in a w**e region in China, in a family with no connection to w**e at all. Her fascination with w**e started with a small fermentation experiment in the family apartment while she was still at school, and that curiosity never really left her. It carried her through a viticulture and w**emaking degree in China, a Master’s at the University of Adelaide, and then a run of vintages as a flying w**emaker through South Australia, California, the Northern Rhône and Burgundy.
She first came to Tscharke Wines in 2018, on a university field trip. She left that day taken with Damien’s creativity and the care in the cellar, and quietly decided that if she ever found herself in the Barossa, this would be one of the places she would love to work. Eight years later, she is the one making the w**e.
The way she describes the job is lovely. She looks after the grape babies and helps them become sound, delicious w**es with a personality of their own. In practice that means vintage, the daily rhythm of the w**ery and the cellar, bottling, the paperwork and everything in between. When things are quieter you will find her at the cellar door, where she will happily admit she is not the chattiest host, right up until someone asks her about w**e.
Ask her for a favourite and she will give you three. The 2025 Shiraz Shiraz Shiraz, so juicy she calls it a breakfast w**e. A Thing of Beauty, for its balance and its ease. And Gnadenfrei North Shiraz, the quieter, more serious one that says the most about where it comes from.
Her favourite place here is a simple one. Outside the cellar door on a sunny day, a glass in hand, an empty head and a view that is beautiful in every season.
We are very glad she found her way back to us. Come and say hello next time you are out this way.
