Chris Ringland, a native Australian, began making wine at the age of twelve, and it’s been his passion ever since. Even he says he doesn’t know why, but Chris has been obsessed with winemaking since anyone can remember. After graduating from Roseworthy College (an Australian wine-centric college comparable to California’s UC Davis), he worked at New Zealand wineries for several years, then traveled to California to work the 1987 vintage. In 1988, he returned to Australia to study under Robert O’Callahan of Rockford, one of the leading cult Barossa Valley wineries.

However Chris became pretty famous in 1993 when Robert Parker tasted his own Three Rivers Syrah. Every vintage since then he has received 99 or 100 points. Parker’s comments were that that wine was arguably the greatest syrah made in Australia. Now he is the senior winemaker at R Wines, Bodegas Alto Moncayo and Bodegas El Nido in Spain.

Chris Ringland stands at the summit of world Syrah producers.