Skatey...The life of Les Skate

Skatey
The Life of Les Skate
So that was Coldstream Hills. Now one of the top directors of that company was a fellow
named Tony Jordan. He was a world-wide acclaimed wine maker. He was given the job by
a French crowd, Domaine-Chandon, to find a property, to put in a vineyard and start a
winery. He found a property called Green Point, on the Maroondah Hwy between the
highway and the Yarra river. He proceeded to put in the vineyard.
Because Tony was connected to James and had seen what I’d done there, he asked if I was
interested in doing it. So, I looked at the plans and oh boy, it was a whopper! They got
architects from Sydney, Allan, Jack and Collier, who were world-renowned architects. I
thought it would be pretty good working for them!
So I looked at the plans and
oh boy, it was a whopper!
They sent a trouble-shooter down from Sydney and
they had a meeting up at the house at Coldstream
Hills, not far from where we lived. There were two
other big city companies bidding (probably never built
a winery in their lives). They interviewed them first
and I was the last one. I think the bloke had already made up his mind, he knew that I was
a one-man band. He was firing all these questions at me and I couldn’t take it anymore, so I
said, ‘Sorry I’m not interested.’ So, I went home (a few hundred yards up the road).
About half an hour later a knock came on the door. It was Tony Jordan.
‘Come in.’ I said.
‘Look Les, do you want to do it and how do you want to do it?’ he asked.
‘Well I’ll do the building, and you pay all the bills!’
We shook hands on it and that was that!
I went on to build it over four years. It was built in four separate sections. It’s one of the
most beautiful and best wineries in the Yarra Valley.
I received an accolade when I finished building
Domaine-Chandon that I have always been
very proud of. Those architects, who as I said,
were known world-wide … they’d done some
fantastic work in other countries. They said
my eye for detail was as good as they’d seen
anywhere in the world. I think I was very,
very, fussy!
35