About Us
Hi, I'm Jack.
Cloudbreak is my small-batch label, made from a single family vineyard high in the Adelaide Hills. The idea behind it is pretty simple: make seriously good wine that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Five generations in the making
Wine has been in my family for a long time. My great-great-grandfather, Jack Tomich Sr, arrived in Australia from Croatia's Adriatic Coast in 1903 and planted vines in Mildura in 1936. His son Ivan was making and selling wine to local farmers within a decade. Two generations later my grandfather John — after a whole career as a surgeon — came back to the family trade and established our vineyard at Woodside in the Adelaide Hills in 1999, just after I was born.
I grew up on that land. I was pruning as a kid and blending alongside my dad and grandfather as a teenager, so working in the Adelaide Hills was never really a question for me. My family has been farming this site for nearly thirty years now, and the connection to it isn't just professional — it's personal. It's a place I've grown up on, learned from, and now get to shape going forward.
A vineyard with a view
Stand at the top of our vineyard and, in every direction, all you see is horizons — Mt Torrens to the north-east, Mt Lofty to the south-west, Lenswood over the range. We sit mid-region in the Adelaide Hills at around 400 metres, with more than 60 hectares under vine across about 30 individual blocks. Cool nights, long even ripening, ancient soils and real variation from parcel to parcel — honestly, it's everything you want when you're chasing freshness and finesse. How could I not make wine from a site like this?
It's also a vineyard that's been reborn. In 2019 the Cudlee Creek bushfire tore through the site. Rather than just rebuild, we used the moment to rethink everything — moving to more site-specific farming, breaking the vineyard down into smaller parcels, and picking for flavour, acid and balance rather than chasing numbers. You can taste the difference: more purity and definition, especially in the chardonnay and pinot noir.
Why I started Cloudbreak
I could have just trained up in the family business and waited to take the reins. But in 2020 I launched Cloudbreak — my own label, and my own way forward.
Being part of a family business like Tomich is something I'm really proud of, but it comes with a lot of responsibility and expectation. At a certain point I felt the need to branch out — to have something entirely my own, where I could make decisions instinctively and explore ideas without being tied to the day-to-day. There wasn't one big epiphany, more a gradual realisation that if I didn't do it soon, I probably never would. Cloudbreak became that outlet: a way to focus on small-batch, detail-driven wines and push a few stylistic boundaries, while staying grounded in the Hills. It's definitely not the easy path — but that's part of the appeal. It keeps me hands-on, considered, and connected to every decision.
How I make the wine
For me, it all comes back to restraint, letting the vineyard lead rather than covering it up in the winery. Early on it's easy to overwork a wine, too much oak, too much extraction, thinking you're building complexity. Over time I've learned that pulling things back gives you more clarity, more precision, and a truer expression of the site.
So I keep the winemaking simple. Minimal additions, sulphur used conservatively, older barrels and larger formats treated as seasoning rather than the main event, and some wines left unfiltered where it suits the style. In the Hills' marginal, ever-changing climate that also means staying flexible and adapting to suit the season rather than forcing a style. My job is to guide the wine, not dominate it.
Two collections
Nouveau Collection — bright, expressive and made for everyday. Fresh, fruit-forward and endlessly food-friendly, these are the wines I want you to open around the table with good company, no occasion required.
Premier Collection — a limited release of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for when you want something a little more serious, in a distinctive, chunky bottle under cork. Refined, layered and worth cellaring, this is the vineyard showing just how much it has to say.
A little recognition
I was lucky enough to be named a 2026 finalist in the Young Gun of Wine awards, and the wines have been kindly received by the critics too. Reviewing the range for Winepilot, Tony Love gave the Premier Collection Pinot Noir 95 points, calling it "a wine with a madly unique story and deliciousness to match it", along with 94 points for the Syrah and 93 for both the Premier Chardonnay and the Nouveau Pinot Noir.
When it all comes together, you end up with wines that have both intensity and restraint, generous in flavour, but still driven by structure and freshness. That's what I'm chasing, vintage after vintage.
Thanks for being here. I hope you enjoy the wines as much as I love making them.
- JT