Canberra’s Nathan Brown awarded a place on the prestigious Young Gun of Wine list
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Since 2017, the Young Gun of Wine awards have recognised the best up-and-coming winemakers, Australia-wide.
With just a handful of winemakers recognised from each region (and with the ACT being classified as part of the NSW list), the competition is stiff and an inclusion on the list a prestigious feather in any winemakers cap.
This year, this list includes Canberra’s own restaurateur turned winemaker, Nathan Brown.
A stalwart of the Canberra hospitality scene across a range of venues for more than a decade, Nathan is best known for owning Ainslie’s beloved Pulp Kitchen, and now makes wines under Linear, the label he founded in 2018.
In the years since, Nathan has scooped several gold medal-winning varieties (the 2023 Gruner Veltiner recently won Gold at the Royal Canberra Show) from batches of grapes found in some of the region’s most celebrated and unique wineries, combining the unique terroirs of the Canberra district, Hilltops, Gundagai and Tumbarumba in his drops.
Working as a one man team, Nathan personally tends to the vines, harvests the fruit and then processes his wine in his custom-built facility outside of Canberra.
It’s this unique approach to winemaking that Nathan says drew him to this second career.
“We have access to a wide range of climatic conditions in our greater region. The flavours that can be created when the climate ranges from havoc to tranquil and everything in between gives us access to more varieties grown in the right conditions,” says Nathan.
“This is what hooked me on winemaking.”
Stocked in a range of Canberra restaurants, you can find out more about Linear here.
