Mr Rikard-Bell’s boutique label Rikard Wines, based in Nashdale, recently won over wine godfather James Halliday, who has scored its 2016 Black Label Chardonnay and Black Label Pinot Noir 95 points and its 2016 Shiraz, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay 94 points.

Mr Rikard-Bell is a former Bathurst man who completed his schooling at All Saints’ College. His parents Hal and Megan are well-known members of the Bathurst community.

The winemaker and his veterinarian wife Kimberley have also bought a 10 hectare-block at an elevation of 1050 metres near Mount Canobolas, where they will raise their two daughters and nurture their business.

A plan has been submitted to council to build a cellar door and winery so Mr Rikard-Bell can continue his bread and butter as a contract winemaker for about 16 labels.

The land acquisition will also allow him to plant several clones of their pinot and chardonnay, and later some riesling, so he can build on the success of Rikard Wines.

The winemaker’s single-mindedness stood him in good stead when tragedy struck at Hunter winery Draytons in January, 2008 when an explosion ripped through the main processing shed.

Leading vigneron Trevor Drayton, mere footsteps from Mr Rikard-Bell at the time of the explosion, was killed, alongside Eddie Orgo, a contract worker who was welding near a metal wine vat, unaware that it contained flammable liquid before he began working.

He was set alight but managed to crawl out of the shed and run to a dam, where he waited for paramedics to arrive.

“It was ‘I’m on fire, let’s get out of the building, got to get to water, there’s the dam, that’ll do, no um-ing and ah-ing,” he said.

“I had no idea, I thought I would be back at work a couple of weeks later … I thought ‘I am missing some skin, I have some burns, I didn’t realise the full extent of it.”

Flown to the John Hunter Hospital with burns to 70 per cent of his body – his chest, face and feet untouched – he was transferred to the burns unit in Concord Hospital.

He was determined not to let his injuries “define” him, as he saw other burns victims allow themselves to do.

“It was ‘Right, focus, this [recovery] is your job for the next two years,” he recalled.

“I was very lucky to have a medical family that took care of absolutely everything around me and so all I had to focus on was getting up, physio and so on.”