Shop Ministry of Clouds

Ministry of Clouds was founded in 2012 by Bernice Ong and Julian Forwood with the sole goal of crafting wines with gastronomy in mind.

It was borne of our joint desire to live full lives in the world of wine – to be our own quiet voice in the clamour of our industry, no longer employed by others, only working with varieties and vineyards we love, relishing the freedom to experiment, to take risks, to feed the flames that kindle our souls.

We fell in love with wine first. Then we set about the farming and the making.

Our journeys began with many years of working for the storied Australian importers of the rare and fine wines of the old world, being immersed in the best of Burgundy, Piedmonte, the Rhone and beyond.

From there, our careers migrated to working for renowned family-owned wineries in McLaren Vale providing 16 years between us to meet growers, walk vineyards, observe the changing seasons and its nuances, but most importantly the opportunity to taste widely from our region, McLaren Vale.

We gained a growing understanding of the dedication and sheer bloody-mindedness required to identify and nurture great vineyards, to carefully shepherd the resulting fruit through fermentation and maturation and then set out to find willing partners around the world to tell these stories.

It was here that we decided that if our lives in wine were to continue, we needed to be behind out own wines.

Hence the name Ministry of Clouds…

For us, Ministry of Clouds conveys the illusion of control in making wine. For two control freaks working with nature, it is a comforting reminder that shared magic relies as much on the arbitrary and unpredictable as it does upon our intent and the detail of our design.

We govern what we can, the rest is chance. Perhaps that is just life…