ABOUT US

Destiny, fortune or just life...

From an early age my grandfather used to take me
through the vineyards at our family winery in Mendoza, Argentina. I remember walking under the green canopies in the middle of the summer and have clear images of the happiness in his smiling face when he was cuddling and lifting me at three years old.

Unfortunately, that same summer, a tragic accident claimed my grandfather’s life and it was only years later, after growing up in the city, that I again became acquainted with wines and vines...

Undertaking an engineering degree in Agriculture (the second most difficult after Medicine) I specialised in viticulture and oenology, making reds, whites and sparkling wines, and the last one, trapped me the most.

Destiny, fortune, or just life, brought me to Australia and I worked vintages in Langhorne Creek, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. From the moment I arrived I found happiness in the company of good friends, the beautiful surroundings, the great wines and I met Michelle who after three years became my wife.

Inspired by my enthusiasm and passion for handcrafted wine, Michelle’s parents David and Jane became involved and helped make the first year of trial vintage become a reality. It was an affair for the whole family from the hand picking of the grapes to transporting, and of course sampling!

For the special occasion of our wedding, a vibrant and fresh young sparkling wine was served to the tables and our wedding guests. With the wedding over, life continued and the second vintage was approaching together with a baby on the way.

2011 was a tough year for everybody in the wine industry, reds were practically not picked in the Adelaide Hills and powdery mildew opened the door for botrytis to finish the job of an unexpected year for many people. Nevertheless, after searching many properties, we found exceptional grapes in the Adelaide Hills.

We are pleased to say all was made and bottled in the nick of time to welcome baby
Louis Martin!

The Wine

Don’t envy the French the Adelaide Hills has exceptional potential to make fine sparkling wines and Mordrelle have the passion to make it happen!  Handcrafted from the careful selection of grapes to the hand picking, turning, disgorging and bottling, we are sure you’ll appreciate and enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Bottles have been numbered, with 10 dozen available of the 2010 Museum Premium Sparkling Wine, and 20 dozen left available of the 2011 Adelaide Hills Sparkling Wine this year. Both wines are bottled fermented.

We have released a new project of red wines which has achieved recognition in the prestigious annual Adelaide Review HOT 100 Wines 2014. Awonderful achievement competing against 1200 wines entered.

2013

Vintage 2013 has been recently released, and already one of our Syrah clones has been selected as one of the HOT 100 in the 2014 annual Adelaide Review Wine Show.

We also have released a 2013 unoaked style Chardonnay.

2011

2011 was a cold year with average yields – the few factors made this vintage very special.  We were impressed with the quality of the selected Chardonnay vines from the Adelaide Hills Region and the grapes were harvested before the big rains – perfect timing.

The grapes are pressed extracting the best juice.  Cold, primary fermentation is undertaken to preserve the fruit character and freshness.  Once the base wine is stabilised, we proceed to bottle the wine, the “tirage” or just the ferment process. We control the second fermentation in a very cold underground ambient enabling the finest bubble and great foam formation upon completion.  The yeast gives the initial characters of roast nuts, bread or brioche and many more with the texture intensifying with time.

2010

Grapes picked vines personally looked after by Martin in Adelaide Hills, the first vintage of sparkling was created especially for our family occasions.  We received such a wonderful response from all who tried it, we decided to produce local wines from the Adelaide Hills. Our boutique winery began with this wine and it has now become our first ‘museum wine’ aged over 4.5 years on lees. This wine received the attention of judges in the last Adelaide Hill Wine Show, obtaining a SILVER MEDAL in the museum category.