In the 1990’s at an Australian Society of Viticulturists and Oenologists seminar in Mildura, Phil Reedman, wine buyer for Tesco the UK supermarket giant, got up and said Australian wine was becoming boring. He challenged all those present to come up with something new, something exciting, something other than the traditional iconic Australian varieties that have been the mainstream staples for years.

Chalmers took this on board and decided they were going to do something about it.  Through Dr Rod Bonfiglioli’s contacts at VCR and Gruppo Matura in Italy, Chalmers Nurseries brought around seventy new clones and varieties of grapevines into the country.  Varieties selected from places like the south of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia where the climate and conditions are more similar to the greater area of wine growing regions in Australia.

Once these vines were established, multiplied into whole rows in the vineyard and ready for propagation it became clear that many growers would never have heard of most of these varieties let alone know why they should bother trying to grow them.

So Chalmers set about beginning to vinify parcels of fruit from these initial plantings to test their suitability to the land and introduce people to these new varieties and subsequent wine styles.

Wines which proved interesting or distinctly varietal were bottled under the MDC label (www.murraydarlingcollection.com.au) which provided a breeding ground for many new wines as well as new takes on wines already on shelves and winelists, made using different grapevine clones.  Of the resultant wines some proved to be especially distinctive and characteristic, in general these wines also met with acclaim in the trade and media.  These wines, the popular stand-outs, have etched themselves a position in today’s market with consistent quality and stylistic authenticity.  These wines are the success stories of the ten-year importation and vinification project of the Chalmers family.  These wines are the result of years of experimentation and refinement from terroir to barrique, Australian wines which proudly display their continental heritage. 

The Chalmers wines.