The philosophy behind the wine making is to grow or source fruit of the highest quality and to allow the resulting wine to reflect its particular vineyard origin ( what the French call terroir ), and to encourage the development of secondary aromas and flavours, structure and mouthfeel to achieve wine with subtle complexity, structure and a lingering pleasing aftertaste.

When Moorooduc Estate was founded in 1982 very little was known about growing grapes and making wine on the Mornington Peninsula. Since then we have accumulated sufficient experience about the viticulture and winemaking on our piece of land to be able to draw some conclusions about its potential for making great wine. In most years, wines we have made from the later ripening varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz have been very good. This is explained by our warmer subregion and a well situated and exposed vineyard. It is increasingly evident, however, that our site is most suited to the early ripening varieties of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. In our opinion the Mornington Peninsula has the potential to be one of the world’s great regions for the production of wines made from these varieties which are our main focus but we will continue to make small quantities of high quality Cabernet and Shiraz for the mailing list, cellar door and the discerning trade.

Over the years our winemaking has been defined and refined through experimentation, research and reflection. In 1996 we started experimenting with indigenous or ‘Wild’ yeasts naturally present in the vineyard, relying on these to effect the primary fermentation. We have consistently preferred the wild yeast wines to those inoculated with commercially available cultured yeast, the former being less fruity but richer and more complex, and we adopted the name for our reserve wine. So successful were the results that today all of our Moorooduc Estate wines are now fermented with indigenous yeasts and, starting with the 2001 vintage, all our Moorooduc Estate wines are labelled as such and the reserve wine is called “The Moorooduc”.

It has also become clear that, whereas the Mornington Peninsula as a whole shares certain viticultural characteristics such as a temperate, maritime climate, there are distinct differences between areas within the region. In particular, our warmer, drier Northern part has quite a different climate to the cooler Southern areas around Main Ridge and Red Hill. It is likely that these differences will be recognised by the definition of two or more subregions.

After centuries of experience, many old world wine regions have observed definable subregions and within them, individual vineyards that consistently produce characters identifiably different and better than their neighbours. Examples of this are seen in Italy’s Piedmont, Germany’s Mosel and in many French regions with the best known being Burgundy’s Cote D’Or. Here the classifications encompass regional wines made from grapes grown in any part of the region, village wines from individual communes and individual vineyard wines within communes, usually indicated by Premier or Grand Cru status.

Chardonnay

Sourced entirely from our own low yielding vineyards and selected from the barrels displaying the greatest richness and complexity. Typically, more new wood is employed in this reserve wine and a greater proportion is fermented on solids.

• Hand harvested.
• Light whole bunch pressing.
• 50% of the juice is run directly into barrel without settling.
• The remainder of the juice is settled for 24 hours before being racked to barrel.
• Wild yeast primary fermentation and malolactic fermentation in French oak, 50% being new.
• Coopers: Sirugue, Rousseau, Gillet, Damy.
• Frequent barrel stirring.
• 12 months maturation period.
• Light fining and no filtration prior to bottling.

Pinot Noir

The Moorooduc Mcintyre Vineyard Pinot Noir is sourced entirely from our own low yielding vineyard and is mainly taken from the 114, 115 and MV6 clones, which are proving themselves highly suited to this site. Always more intense and structured, they demand greater time in bottle to open and develop.

Production Notes

• Hand harvested
• Wild Yeast’ fermentation in small open vats with a proportion of whole bunches depending on the vintage, usually around 20%.
• Regular plunging during active fermentation with temperature peaking at 32-34ºC.
• 19 to 21 days on skins.
• After gentle pressing and 24 hours settling in tank, the new wine is transferred to small French oak barrels of which 40% are new each year.
• A natural malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel.
• Coopers: Sirugue, Francoise Freres, Gillet, Rousseau.
• 14 months in wood with one racking.
• Light egg white fining (usually) with no filtration prior to bottling.

Chardonnay

Consistently a high quality wine, representing the warmer, drier northern part of the Mornington Peninsula, with richness, sophisticated complex flavours and great palate length.

Production Notes

• Hand harvested
• After gentle pressing the juice is settled for 24 hours in tank before being racked to barrel.
• Wild yeast fermentation in French oak, 30% being new.
• Coopers: Sirugue, Rousseau, Gillet, Damy.
• 100% natural malolactic fermentation.
• Frequent barrel stirring.
• 10 months maturation in barrel.
• Light fining and filtration if necessary.

Pinot Noir

Moorooduc Estate Pinot Noir is usually full and rich as a consequence of our relatively warm sub region. The flavours are in the spectrum of plum and dark cherry, often with earthy and mineral characters.

Production Notes

• Hand harvested
• ‘Wild Yeast’ fermentation in small open vats with a proportion of whole bunches depending on the vintage, usually around 20%.
• Regular plunging during active fermentation with temperature peaking at 32-34ºC.
• 19 to 21 days on skins.
• After gentle pressing and 24 hours settling in tank, the new wine is transferred to small French oak barrels of which 30% are new each year.
• A natural malolactic fermentation occurs in barrel.
• Coopers: Sirugue, François Freres, Gillet, Rousseau
• 14 months in wood with one racking.
• Light egg white fining prior to bottling.

The 2006/07 season was tricky for most and downright horrendous for some. What with hail, frost, high wind, drought, bushfires and the resulting smoke taint throughout Victoria during this growing season, it’s a miracle that there was any wine produced at all.

Fortunately here at Moorooduc Estate, we avoided the frost damage, bushfires and smoke, and had only to contend with some untimely wind and hail damage early in the season, and further reduced yields from water stress. All in all, while quantities are down, thanks to a mild, dry autumn, quality is very high. Lovely ripe, small, concentrated berries yielded intense aromas and flavours, and the wines are complex and structured with wonderful length and weight.

Vinification & Analysis

Production - 300 Cases

The Wine

Pale green gold in colour this wine show a concentrated, intricate, savoury nose - layers of nectarine and citrus fruit, hazelnuts and spicy honey and cheesy complexity. On the palate the flavours are restrained and spicy, with a luscious, slippery mouthfeel balancing long crisp lemon and mandarine acidity on the finish.