At Ten Minutes By Tractor we grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on all three of our 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. In addition to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Tempranillo are also grown on the Wallis Vineyard and Sauvignon Blanc on the Judd Vineyard.
We meticulously manage our three vineyards including vertical shoot positioning, leaf plucking, hedging, bunch thinning and harvesting which are all done by hand.
Each block on each vineyard is picked and vinified separately, allowing us 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.
We have a non-interventionist approach to winemaking, adopting traditional winemaking techniques that help to enhance the wonderful flavours, complexity, elegance and length of our wines for which we have become renowned.
All our 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 our grapes and the winery. Our Pinot Noir is aged for 12 to 18 months in French oak barriques and lightly finned. Our Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc are also fermented in French oak barrels. All our wines are bottled under screwcap to prevent cork taint, random oxidation and to preserve the pristine characters of our 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.” |
