Our Passionate Team

Toby Pieters

OWNER & Managing director

Toby brings a lifetime of small business experience and entrepreneurship to the team having started his career in the ceramic tile family business which saw him become General Manager, before the age of 20.  In 2014, Toby and his partner Dianne embarked on a new adventure in the wine world, purchasing Rahona Valley vineyard, on the Mornington Peninsula.  It is here Toby fell in love with sparkling wine and now knows more than most winemakers about the subject. A quiet and generally shy man, until you get him talking about wine.  Toby loves sharing his passion for wine with our winery visitors.

Dianne Gardiner

OWner, Director Marketing & Sales

Dianne is a businesswoman and entrepreneur. Having established her own market research business in 2007 at the start of the GFC, she rode out the storm and after 13 years of running the business she continues in the role as CEO today.

In 2014, Dianne and Toby embarked a new adventure into the wine world. While Dianne isn’t involved in the winemaking or vineyard management she loves wine and is custodian of our brand. 
​Visit our cellar door and chat to Dianne about what makes Rahona…. Seriously. Good.  

Natalie Fryar

Chief winemaker

Growing up in a wine region, Natalie completed school work experience with Hardys winery at age 14 and at 16 she did her very first vintage. Natalie has enjoyed a stellar career that has taken her all over the world from Great Western to Champagne and Tasmania.  Known in the industry as “the Queen of Bubbles”, Natalie was for over 14 years the winemaker at Jansz Tasmania, helping to establish it as a leading Australian sparkling wine specialist. Today she has her own sparkling wine company Bellebonne, a gin company Abel Gin and consults to numerous wineries, including Pipers Brook Vineyard, who make sparkling wine under the Kreglinger, Pipers Brook and Ninth Island labels. ​In late 2018 Natalie became Rahona Valley’s sparkling wine consultant and in 2019 became the Chief winemaker.

Alisdair Park

Senior winemaker

​Developing a passion for wine while working in the events industry in Sydney, Alisdair opted for a change in career and graduated with a Bachelor of Viticulture and Oenology from the University of Adelaide in 2013. He has undertaken vintages in several regions in Australia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Training as an assistant winemaker with Hardys, Alisdair worked in the Arras sparkling wine program for several years under Ed Carr, where he gained a passion for crafting quality sparkling wine. During this time he had the opportunity to undertake a vintage at the sparkling wine house Nyetimber in the UK which gave him further experience in cold climate wine production. Since moving to Victoria in 2018 Alisdair has furthered his interest in producing wines from cool climate regions and joined Rahona Valley to focus on producing top quality cool climate wines.