Ministry of Clouds: A Life Well Lived, Poured Carefully
For the third year running, Ministry of Clouds returns as Official Wine Sponsor of Melbourne Art Fair, a partnership grounded less in branding and more in belief. In shared values. In curiosity. In the understanding that craft, when taken seriously, becomes culture.
Founded by winemakers Bernice Ong and Julian Forwood, Ministry of Clouds did not emerge from lineage or inheritance, but from instinct. Their path into wine was unconventional, shaped not by generational hand-me-downs but by lived experience and an almost contrarian devotion to taste, thought, and restraint.
Bernice’s early years were spent working alongside a revered importer of Old World wines; France, Italy, the great canonical regions. The Old Masters, as she describes them. Julian’s education unfolded in kitchens rather than vineyards, witnessing first-hand how thoughtful contemporary Australian food could be transformed, elevated by the right wine. What united them was not the business of wine, but the pursuit of it: the endlessly shifting relationship between site, season, grape variety and human touch.
Their philosophy is one of attentiveness. Of small, deliberate interventions. Of nipping here, tucking there, refining rather than imposing. “The best technique,” they say, “is largely invisible.”
Ministry of Clouds, Chase Vineyard, McLaren Vale
That sensibility carries naturally into their support of the arts.
Ministry of Clouds’ manifesto speaks of independence, unpredictability, and “a life well lived” not as a slogan, but as an ongoing practice. For Bernice and Julian, this means resisting the temptation to believe their own press, remaining alert to the difference between success and luck, and carving out a singular voice that is true rather than loud.
It is precisely this commitment to singular voices that draws them to Melbourne Art Fair.
The Fair, like their wines, provides a platform for ideas rooted in place, time, and personal vision. It champions makers who are invested in process as much as outcome, and audiences who are curious rather than passive. For Ministry of Clouds, supporting MAF is an extension of how they engage with the world as patrons, participants, and perpetual students.
Like us, they recognise the parallels between winemaking and contemporary art or design offer an opportunity for dialogue.
Both demand patience and reward repetition. Both are physical and conceptual at once. You work with your hands and your head. You respond to the material in front of you. Recipes don’t apply. Over time, a language emerges, a point of view shaped by seasons, failures, refinements, and return.
It is, as they describe it, the long game.
Their partnership with Melbourne Art Fair began three years ago, coinciding with the Fair’s relaunch and renewed focus on quality-driven, artisanal producers. It felt, instinctively, right. A progressive fair willing to do things differently. A space where smaller, thoughtful voices are not overshadowed, but amplified.
For a winery of Ministry of Clouds’ scale, the collaboration is not about commercial return. It is about contribution. About following what feels aligned. About doing their bit for the greater good.
Ministry of Clouds at Melbourne Art Fair 2025. Photo: Breeana Dunbar.
When asked to distil the spirit of Ministry of Clouds beyond wine, they choose three words: Intentional. Restless. Grateful.
Intentional in how they build, vineyards, wines, relationships. Restless in their curiosity, travel, questioning and refinement. And grateful, always, for the communities, collaborators, places and chance encounters that make their work possible.
At Melbourne Art Fair, their wines are poured not as product, but as accompaniment to conversation, to exchange, to moments of connection. Which, in many ways, is exactly how they were intended.
The Ministry of Clouds Bistro and Bar makes its way to Melbourne Art Fair. Furnished by Dann Event Hire.
Melbourne Art Fair returns 19 – 22 February 2026.
Secure tickets here.
