x
  • Time

    00:10 AM
  • Wine average?

    90 Tb
  • Country Ranking?

    104
  • Region Ranking?

    5
  • Popularity ranking?

    240

History

What started as a part time job to earn a few dollars during his university days turned into a committed obsession. Michael worked in the family owned winery, Kooyong, spending time out in the vineyard, in the winery and on the road and the net result was a desire to make this his career.Following the sale of Kooyong Michael went into business with his parents to form Ocean Eight taking on the role of Winemaker and General Manager.To complete his education Michael undertook several study tours of France, concentrating on the hallowed vineyards and cellars of Burgundy.

Whilst he makes Mornington Peninsula wines he has applied the most salient Burgundian techniques to take the wines to another level. In 2011 Michael won the highly coveted “Young Gun Of Wine” award. Leading wine writers Max Allen, Philip Rich and Nick Stock judged this competition.

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Winemaking

They developed a purpose built, gravity fed winery with an underground barrel room into old horse stables in the back roads of Upper Shoreham. Mike Aylward farms the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir vineyard over the hill in the Dromana area, which provides fertile slopes looking out over Port Phillip Bay, off which it enjoys gentle, cooling breezes during the growing season. The vines were planted in 1999 on well draining sandy, loam soils.

 

Mike is inspired by Burgundian ideals of minimal intervention, natural winemaking techniques and preference for reductive handling, gravity movement and old barrels in the cellar. The winemaking is very simple, with the intent of expressing the site coming at any cost, and this is seen through the Grand Cru type yields of between 1 and 2.2 tonne to the acre. All fruit is hand harvested and kept very cool during the natural ferments. The cool, wild yeast ferment on the Pinot Noir builds enticing aromatics, whilst constant plunging helps extract colour and flavor from this powerful fruit. It is all about expressing varietal character and regional influence of Mornington, seeing only 10% new oak during its 12 month elevage.

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Inside information

Chardonnay on the Mornington is always characterized by high-pitched acidity, and Mike takes advantage of this style, regularly being amongst the first to harvest his Chardonnay fruit. By harvesting earlier in the ripening period Mike’s Chardonnay maintain Riesling-like acidity and hit on an array of citrus tones. There is a reductive, flint, matchstick like influence through Mikes Chardonnay, the oak is always old French and the wines are tightly wound.

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6 different wines with 12 vintages

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