Billy Button winemaker Jeni Port reflects on the Alpine Valley winery's first decade

The clouds are coming in fast, building pace and looking thunderous and, at the same time, majestic. On the horizon, the peaks of Mount Buffalo National Park unfold, trimmed in a ribbon of green forests and the odd cluster of high-altitude vines. 

The beauty of the Alpine Valleys is in glorious 360-degree technicolour this October afternoon atop the Billy Button Wines home block at Porepunkah.

Founder and winemaker Jo Marsh can clearly recall the first time she took it all in. 

“I remember driving up to the region,” she says, “and thinking oh, my God, this place is gorgeous. This region is beautiful.”

The year was 2012. She had just left her position as senior winemaker at Seppelt Great Western and had been headhunted for the winemaking job at Feathertop Winery, Porepunkah. 

Within six weeks of landing the role, she bought land locally and started setting down roots.

Two years later, she left Feathertop to start building her own wine dream – Billy Button Wines.

Ten years on, Billy Button Wines is recognised as one of the most exciting proponents of alternative grape varieties in the country, shedding a light on the unpronounceable, the obscure and the downright delicious grown and made in the Alpine Valleys that many outside the region probably never knew existed. 

Or, as Jo will have it: The Alluring (tempranillo), The Surreptitious (schioppettino), The Groovy (grüner veltliner), The Versatile (vermentino), The Honest (fiano) and The Affable (barbera) – amid an encyclopaedic selection of non-mainstream grape names – that pour effortlessly into the glass at easy, get-to-know-you prices. 

At Billy Button, all grapes are considered equal. While she may have had some idea of how a grape behaved and tasted in its homeland, Jo’s winemaking has largely been left open. 

“I didn’t ever set out to make them in a certain style,” she says. “Regardless of variety, most fruit tells you how it wants to be made pretty much.”

She started out in 2014 with just six varieties: a trio of whites in riesling, chardonnay, verduzzo and, in reds, tempranillo, sangiovese and shiraz. As word got out, local growers came to her with other grapes, first vermentino, then barbera and then more and more.

While not known for just one variety, it’s fair to say that with time some grapes have shown greater aptitude under the Billy Button banner. Her vermentino is invariably sunny in disposition and energetic in the glass. As a recent celebratory 10-year tasting proved, it can also age extremely well.

From the start, fiano, in the hands of Jo and her husband, ex-BRL Hardy/Penfolds winemaker, Glenn James, (who joined Billy Button Wines full time from 2021) showed outstanding promise. “I always thought it would be Australia’s next big thing,” admits Glenn. He could be right.

The wine rarely disappoints, combining a firm acid backbone upon which apple, pear, lemon balm, citrus and more is layered. The result is concentrated and textural.

One grape that captured the winemakers’ imagination and has gone on to seduce wine judges and wine drinkers alike is schioppettino. “It brings vibrance to our lives,” adds James. Vibrancy is certainly part of the grape’s personality, together with pepper, tannin and a red fruited intensity. 

Within the colourful, multicultural world of grapes that inhabit Billy Button Wines, the overwhelming philosophy is one of discovery matched to keen prices. The winemakers want drinkers to discover their alternate wine world. The price tag, around $32 a bottle or less, helps.

However, lately the couple are working on a more ambitious plan, one that they hope will put Alpine Valleys on the serious wine drinker’s map via super premium quality wines – daringly, they use the word ‘iconic” – led by chardonnay, riesling, shiraz and a small coterie of varieties under separate labels.

There’s Shy Susan which represents their best grower wines. The Rosewhite Vineyard label, sourced off the oldest vineyard in the region now being leased by the couple, is about to be launched. Anderson & Marsh, a collaboration between Marsh and good friend and fellow winemaker, Eleana Anderson, is already established at the premium wine level. Then there is Pandora’s Amphora, Glenn’s special interest project, which he originally started in Tasmania.

“When we talk about Alpine Valleys people say, ‘Oh, is that part of the King Valley?’” says Jo Marsh, with more than a hint of frustration.

“So, yes, I think it is important to make a top-tier wine. We don’t just want to be known for alternative varieties.”

But which grape will make the cut? Chardonnay is a strong possibility. So, too, a cool climate shiraz. The couple will also be planting their own vineyard on their home property in 2026.

The most scenic view in Porepunkah, 340 metres high with vines positioned on terracing, will be planted to nerello mascalese, mencia and a third red variety yet to be determined, dry grown. Everything will be done by hand. Stage two, devoted to white grapes, will happen over the following five years.

It is only fitting that the next momentous step in wine in the Alpine Valleys be taken by Jo Marsh and Glenn James. 

And, no, it won’t be under the Billy Button Wines name. Stay tuned. A new Alpine Valleys era is dawning.