From the outset of Chalmers’ foray into alternative, mostly European varieties, winemaker Sandro Mosele has been involved.

His interest in these new clones and varieties (especially Italian) and his passion for making varietally authentic wines has been an integral part of the entire vinification project from the first days.

Sandro is winemaker for Kooyong on the Mornington Peninsula (www.kooyong.com) and
is engaged by the Chalmers family as a contract winemaker.

Sandro’s winemaking philosophy fits the Chalmers’ venture perfectly, allowing accurate assessment of the potential of these new vines to be successful in Australian viticulture.

His minimal intervention winemaking techniques ensure that the predominant character in the finished wine is varietal expression.

This has allowed eventual selection of the varieties that consistently produce distinctive wines, characteristic of their variety and reflecting
their new environment.

All the fruit for these wines is hand harvested and, in most cases, selectively harvested to ensure only the perfectly ripe, unblemished fruit goes into the wines.

The fruit is chilled for a few hours and then freighted overnight to Kooyong where it is processed first thing in the morning. In line with the ‘hands-off’ approach implemented by Mosele, all wines are produced by ‘wild ferments’ and there is little use of new oak in any of the wines, with five year old French oak being used in most cases.

The result is that the collaboration between Chalmers’ viticulture and Mosele’s vinification has enabled the creation of bold, unique wines which reflect their stylistic heritage while expressing their contemporary Australian habitat.