Lisa Jenkins is the co-founder, winemaker and vigneron behind Fleet Wines in South Gippsland, alongside her husband and business partner, Justin Jenkins. With a career spanning Melbourne’s hospitality and wine scene, Lisa is a qualified chef and sommelier, WSET Diploma holder, Len Evans scholar and experienced wine show judge.
After years immersed in restaurants, wine bars and the broader Australian wine industry, Lisa and Justin returned to South Gippsland in 2016 to pursue their dream of making wine and building a life connected to the land. Today, Fleet Wines produces small-batch, expressive wines that focus on flavour, texture and a strong sense of place.
Lisa brings together her deep hospitality experience, technical wine knowledge and love of food to create wines that are vibrant, balanced and made to be enjoyed. Alongside winemaking, she and Justin are committed to regenerative farming and restoring native vegetation across their South Gippsland property, with a long-term vision of building a sustainable, estate-grown winery for future generations.
As far as I’m concerned, the defining place to get a drink in Victoria is Carlton Wine Room. It’s my go-to whenever I’m in Melbourne. It captures what I love about Victoria’s drinking culture: an incredible wine list that celebrates local producers, genuinely knowledgeable staff, and an atmosphere that feels relaxed rather than intimidating. You can drop in for a quick glass or settle in for the whole evening, and it always reminds me that great wine is really about hospitality and conversation.
When someone hands me a drinks list, I go straight to the aperitif section. It’s become my favourite place to start a meal, and Victoria is making some seriously exciting things in that space. Producers like Saison and Maidenii have really pushed the envelope with vermouth, proving it can be every bit as thoughtful and expressive as wine. If I spot one of their pours on a list, that’s usually where I’m starting.
The last three delicious Victorian things I drank were
- A delicious G&T made with Melbourne Gin Company gin – it always hits the spot.
- Pat Underwood’s Dash Farm chardonnay, which is everything I love about chardonnay: pure, racy and beautifully textural.
- Schmölzer & Brown’s Thorley nebbiolo from Beechworth. Our good friends Tessa Brown and Jeremy Schmölzer are making wines that have an incredible ability to speak of both variety and place, and that nebbiolo was completely heady and mesmerising.
The Victorian wine I’m loving most right now is pinot noir. Over the past 10 to 15 years, I think Australia has really worked out how and where to grow pinot noir to get the best out of it. What excites me most is how each Victorian region brings something different to the table. We’re getting better at stepping back and letting the site do the talking, and that’s where things become really interesting. The wines feel more confident, more individual, and much more reflective of where they’re grown.
There’s no better value on a wine list or in a bottle shop in Victoria than riesling. I think it’s one of Victoria’s greatest bargains. What’s exciting is the range of styles from razor-sharp and mineral to beautifully off-dry and they all have their place. It’s an incredibly versatile variety with food, and I wish more people would lean into those off-dry styles because they can be absolutely scintillating.
My favourite place to buy booze is a great independent bottle shop where the person behind the counter actually knows what’s in the bottle. Natural Science Wine & Liquor is that place for me. Tristan Jallais has built something really special by stocking exclusively Australian wine and drinks, and he’s been a genuine champion of small independent producers for years.
And a special shout-out to Drop Shop, Dan Sims’s brilliant new venture. Dan has always been one of the biggest advocates for local wine and drinks, and he’s rethinking how people discover and buy bottles. It feels fresh, exciting and like the kind of idea that will shape the next chapter of Victoria’s drinks culture.
I’d love to see people planting more native trees in Victoria because it’s something that’s incredibly close to my heart and it’s become a huge part of how we run our business. Five per cent of our wine club revenue goes directly into planting native trees, and over the past five years we’ve planted more than 15,000 of them. Beyond the obvious environmental benefits, healthier landscapes create healthier vineyards. Biodiversity isn’t just good for wildlife – it’s good farming, and I think it’s one of the best long-term investments we can make in Victoria’s wine regions.
My guilty pleasure in the fridge, drinks cabinet or at the bar is Bizzarro’s RTD spritzers. The team behind Bizzarro are legends, and they’ve nailed that balance of fun and seriously delicious. After a big day in the vineyard, when you’ve stopped overthinking what’s in the glass, that’s exactly what I reach for.
The best or most important change to the way people drink in Victoria in recent years has been the way people have rallied behind local producers. We’ve lived through bushfires, lockdowns and now more extreme weather events, and each time I’ve seen Victorian restaurants and bars lead the charge by backing local growers, winemakers and distillers. That support has made an enormous difference, and it’s also changed what’s available to drinkers. When venues champion local drinks, people discover producers they might never have picked up otherwise, and I think that’s made Victoria’s drinks culture much stronger.
For me, the most inspiring person in the Victorian drinks world is… It probably sounds corny, but it’s my husband, Justin. We simply wouldn’t be where we are today without his courage, determination and genuine passion for what we do. Agriculture has a way of humbling you – there are incredible highs, but there is also frost, drought, endless uncertainty and plenty of tough days. Through all of it, we’ve built this business side by side, and I think that’s what inspires me most: continuing to back each other and keep moving forward, no matter what the season throws at us.
Learn more about Fleet Wines and their exceptional expressions at fleetwines.com.au. Follow along for more on Instagram via @fleet_wines