How Rouleur Wine Co found a community of wine lovers in North Melbourne

This local wine tasting room – hidden away on a back street and identifiable only by a pink sign – houses a range of unique Yarra Valley and McLaren Vale wines.

Growing up on a farm in the Yarra Valley as the son of a grape grower, it seems Rouleur founder Matt East was destined for a career in winemaking.

“When I was 14, Dad bought me an old crusher, a de-stemmer and a basket press and I started making my own wine from fruit that we hadn’t sold,” Matt told North West City News.

“Some of those wines in the early days were not great, but it was a good starting point,” he said. “So, that’s how it all began.” 

Around five years ago, Matt opened a cellar door on Laurens Street, giving his business a permanent place to call home.

It was a big step for a business that had very much been built on the move – Matt started Rouleur in 2015 while he was living and working in Adelaide, riding his bike 50 kilometres through the hills to McLaren Vale every morning and back every night.

“On those long rides, I was always thinking, what am I going to call this brand? You know, what’s the basis of the story?” Matt said.

“And then, one of my friends who I used to ride a lot with in Adelaide, he said, ‘you’re a good rider, but you’re not a great rider …  you’re definitely not a climber. I reckon you’re probably more of a rouleur.’

“And I said, ‘what’s a rouleur?’, and he said, ‘well, it’s a bike rider who gives it 110 per cent for the team, they just bury themselves, every race, every day on the bike, they’ll take their opportunities when they see it.’”

“And everything that he was describing, it just resonated with me and the way I was running my wine business,” Matt said.

“I was driving between two states, sleeping in the boot of the car. You know, everything was manic, but I just didn’t stop.”

Matt worked in vineyards from a young age before going on to study viticulture at the William Angliss Institute and wine marketing at the University of Adelaide.

He worked in wholesale wine distribution as well as in sales and marketing for Wirra Wirra Winery until 2015, when he realised that he wanted to start his own brand.

“I used a shipping container and the shed to ferment, and it was real fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants type winemaking,” Matt said.

“I was fermenting in two states at one time, driving back and forth, flying back and forth,” he said.

One of Matt’s favourite parts of his job is spending time with customers during tastings.

I really like having a space that I can call my own. People can come in and I have a really cool one-on-one interaction with them, and taste and talk them through all the wines.

He’s also enjoyed getting to know North Melbourne.

“During COVID, a lot of local people would go for a walk or a wander around the area, and they’d see I’ve got a big pink sign with my logo on it,” Matt said. 

“I think that they saw me taking wine in and out of the building and quite often they would come up to me saying, ‘What’s happening here? What’s going on?’

“I’d say, ‘you know that I’m a winemaker, and I’ve got a little wine brand’, and then inevitably, they’d ask if they could taste or buy some wine. So, that’s how it all began.” •