Martin Bird Wine

An absolute beauty. Like Kooyong, Ten Minutes By Tractor are based in the Mornington Peninsula and this wine shows exactly why there are such high hopes for this region as a quality source for New World Pinot Noir. Light to medium bodied, very attractive strawberry and raspberry notes as well as lovely finesse and elegance - a great match with white meat (itwas stunning with the Christmas turkey!).94 points from James Hailliday in The Australian Wine Companion.

At Ten Minutes By Tractor they grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on all three of their home vineyards, each of which are... ten minutes by tractor apart. The McCutcheon, Wallis and Judd vineyards are all within the Main Ridge subregion, one of the coolest and highest parts of the Mornington Peninsula.

Each block on each vineyard is picked and vinified separately, allowing them maximum flexibility just before bottling to identify the best performing blocks and vineyards to be able to release single vineyard wines or to select the best blends.

They have a non-interventionist approach to winemaking, adopting traditional winemaking techniques that help to enhance the wonderful flavours, complexity, elegance and length of their wines for which they have become renowned.

For all of their wines (except for the tank fermented Sauvignon Blanc) are fermented by using the indigenous or “wild yeasts” that reside in the vineyard, on the skins of their grapes and the winery. The Pinot Noir is aged for 12 to 18 months in French oak barriques and lightly fined. All of their wines are bottled under screwcap to prevent cork taint, random oxidation and to preserve the pristine characters of their wines.

Richard McIntyre and Martin Spedding are responsible for winemaking with the selection and blending decisions made just prior to bottling, at which time the blends and single vineyard releases are chosen.

Martin Spedding is the driving force behind Ten Minutes by Tractor, taking over from the three founding families before the bottling of the 2003 vintage, in early 2004.

“The craft of winemaking is a process of continual learning and discovery. At Ten Minutes By Tractor we are passionate about the challenge of understanding everything that contributes to the quality of our wines, we strive for continual improvement on all that we do so that we can understand the limits of our potential.”

• Vintage2008
• Food ChoiceRoast white meat - particularly brilliant with turkey - and lamb
• Grape Mix100% Pinot Noir
• CountryAustralia
• RegionMornington Peninsula
• Percentage Alcohol14.0%