Includes index. Today the rolling hills of the Yarra Valley are covered with hectares and hectares of wine grape vines from which the famed Yarra Valley wine is produced. While looking at these vines, many visitors and wine lovers pause and wonder how it all started and who were the visionaries who saw the potential of the region. Today, both multi-national wine companies and the small boutique wine makers share in a multi-million industry. Author Ray Henderson whose ancestor was one of those pioneers, has spent 10 years carefully researching the rich history of the region and the six Swiss vignerons who established the colony’s wine industry – Guillaume and Samuel de Pury, Paul and Hubert de Castella, Adolphe de Meuron and Ernest Leuba. The Swiss pioneers were lured to the colony by Sophie, the wife of Victoria’s first Governor Englishman Charles La Trobe. Sophie was the aunt of Adolphe de Meuron and the de Pury brothers. The La Trobes named their first home in the colony Jolimont after a relative’s property in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Sophie encouraged her Swiss relatives and their compatriots to bring their knowledge and expertise to Victoria where they established vineyards in Melbourne, Geelong and the Yarra Valley.