Our Story

The wine science and viticulture teaching program was established at Wagga Wagga in 1976. The current winery model, Boutique Wines by CSU, produces premium small batch cool climate wines supporting local grape growers and the broader Australian wine industry and is an integral part of Australia’s leading wine science school at Charles Sturt University.

In 1893 the university vineyard at Wagga Wagga was planted with grapes as part of the experimental farm established following the formation of the NSW Department of Agriculture in 1880. The wine science and viticulture teaching program was established at Wagga Wagga in 1976. 

The School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences is the largest and most successful provider of agricultural, horticultural and wine science education in Australia.

 Join over 1300 wine and viticulture course graduates from CSU, and gain a position in the Australian and international wine industries.

 Enjoy access to state-of-the-art teaching facilities including a fully operational award-winning winery, experimental winery and vineyard.

CSU can provide you with flexible study options including on-campus, distance education and single-subject study across undergraduate, postgraduate and research courses.

The fabulously bright and eye-catching labels of the Boutique & Alumni wine ranges have been created by CSU Alumnus, Tony Curran. Tony has a PhD (Fine Art) from Charles Sturt University and was commissioned to create labels that capture the essence of the wines and to reflect student life. 

Tony was an Archibald Prize finalist in 2015 with his entry entitled "Luke".

"Wine, like art, is a pleasure and pleasure is an essential part of life. Pleasure is how people calibrate their feelings in the world. When we experience the pleasure it shapes how we can feel.

My research at Charles Sturt University looked at how one can translate the pleasure of being in the presence of another person, into the medium of paint – how can one convey that person’s energy, dynamism, brightness – how they make you feel in the forms of colour, shape, tonality and structure.

I knew that wine could be described in colour, shape and texture because what we feel translates across the senses. I know this because I’ve solved so many of my painting blocks by listening to the jazz music of Miles Davis and the experimental electronica of Jean-Michel Jarre in the studio. Finding something that can make us feel allows us to feel more fully and be more aware of those feelings.

In the labels for this series of wines, the tastes are conveyed through colour, shape, texture and structure. The lightness and sweetness of flavour are conveyed through tone and colour. The fizz of a prosecco or the spritz of young wine is effervescently pixelated. The dominance, roundness or sharpness of flavour is translated as shapes, the relationships of flavours are translated as the contrasts and edges of shapes and their colours abutting one another or softly overlapping.

The structural completeness or incompleteness of the label also connotes something important. Some artworks, like wines, leave you wanting more and others satisfied after one look or glass. This completeness is reflected in the label so that you can get a sense of which wine will work for you. Look at the label and if it feels right, my hope is that the wine will correspond to that same kind of feeling."

 Dr Tony Curran

-2019