our Family wineRy
Juxtaposed wines is the passion project of Wes Pearson and Cassie Southwell, working together to deliver high quality, regionally expressive wines from McLaren Vale, South Australia. Our small, family-owned business has been making wines in McLaren Vale since 2011, delivering wines from iconic old vine sites that express the characteristics unique to that place.
Juxtaposed is also about the Juxtaposition of Wes Pearson’s careers, as both a Research Scientist at the Australian Wine Research Institute and a winemaker. A researcher works in an environment that is rigid and structured, that fits in a box. A winemaker works in the opposite environment, free to be creative and approach things from outside the box, without the structure and formality of the research world. The yin to the other’s yang.
The Juxtaposed wines are free form wines – they are not beholden to any rules or structure. They are simply expressions of a particular place or style. They are wines that are focused on suitability to our culture and climate first and foremost, as well as being expressions of the place from which they came. They are not manipulated or over handled. They are honest wines where the work is done in the vineyard, so that we have to do less in the winery.
Dr Wes Pearson
Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Wes’s career in wine began in 1992 when he spent the winter season snowboarding in the town of Whistler, BC. In order to keep his days free to ride, he found a job at a local steakhouse, thus igniting a love of food and wine.
Thirteen years later, having worked in most of Whistler’s top restaurants, he enrolled in the University of British Columbia’s new wine biochemistry program. While studying full time, Wes also worked whenever possible at Tantalus Vineyards with Aussie winemaker, and Riesling and Pinot Noir guru, Matt Holmes. After graduating in 2008, Wes was offered a prestigious position as an intern oenologist at the “Super Second” 2eme Cru Classé Château Léoville Las Cases in St. Julien, Bordeaux. He then moved to McLaren Vale and in 2011 accepted a position with the Australian Wine Research Institute, where he still works as a Senior Sensory Scientist.
Wes is an accomplished wine show judge, an alumnus of the prestigious Len Evans Tutorial, a graduate of Wine Australia’s Future Leaders program, and has completed a PhD at Charles Sturt University. Wes lives in Willunga with his partner Cassie and their 5 kids. He loves to ride boards (skate, surf and snow), is an accomplished ice hockey player and welcomes any opportunity to hustle you on the golf course.