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Join us this winter for a new Women in Wine event! Sarah Feehan from Parley Wines.
We are hosting an inspiring celebration of women shaping the future of wine. From vineyard to cellar, and from leadership roles to hands-on craftsmanship, this Club event highlights the stories, challenges, and triumphs of the talented women driving innovation, sustainability, and creativity across the wine industry. Whether you're a wine lover, industry professional, or just curious about the diverse voices behind the bottle, this is a space to connect, learn, and raise a glass to the power of women in wine.
About Parley Wines
In 2021, the founding trio behind Parley—Mel, Sarah, and Joss—juggled an intense blend of commitments: studies, jobs, pregnancies, and multiple vintages with other winemakers. Despite hectic schedules and limited resources, they united around a shared passion for winemaking, launching their first vintage from a humble three-car garage in the Adelaide Hills. They sourced 10 tonnes of organically managed fruit from McLaren Vale and Basket Range, crafting eight distinct cuvées. Their debut release came in December 2021, during the pandemic, celebrated with friends and family after a last-minute green light. That first year cemented their collaborative spirit—one grounded in adaptability, trust, and quick decision-making.
In 2022 and 2023, the team expanded both in scale and infrastructure. With Mel’s new baby in tow and Sarah relocating to Sydney, they doubled production, managing long nights and cold conditions while still sharing equipment and space. By 2023, they moved into a larger facility—an old apple shed on the same property—finally affording them the room to invest deeper into their craft with a fermentation room, lab, and barrel hall. Their production grew again, adding vineyards in Coonawarra to their sourcing. The result was standout wines like “Capitaine” Chardonnay—proof of how far their collaborative journey had come.
About Sarah Feehan
With more than 20 years experience in hospitality, working across Australia and Europe for incredible restaurants, Sarah arrived in the Adelaide Hills in 2016. Adjusting very quickly to a slower pace of life, she found herself surrounded by natural winemakers and soon moved from selling their wine to developing a deeper understanding of the movement. Time spent in the cellars and vineyards of her new friends inspired curiosity and by 2019 she took the plunge and got a spot in the vintage crew for Commune of Buttons. Immediately addicted to the dichotomy of exhaustion and adrenaline experienced during harvest, before the end of vintage she had secured a spot on the harvest teams of Jean-Jacques Morel in Burgundy and Pacina in Tuscany later that year. By 2020 she had two little barrels of wine to call her own but when the time came to release she felt something was missing. Wine is about community, it is never made alone.
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