How we started
Our little partnership really joined together initially, to send Aussie wine to the growing international markets. Eventually we realised none of us were not as keen on doing that as we were to make the great Australian red – but in a more moderate, style that was soon…eventually…hopefully to become the norm. But the big, syrup and woody styles still had a way to go!
Passion
Our first few wines weren’t really for everyone, but we knew our more restrained, mid-weight red with it’s emphasis on savoury, rather than sweet fruit and nice zippy acidity to finish, was a style much more suited to a wider variety of foods and especially to the way Australian eating was embracing such diversity of dishes from Asia and the Middle-East etc. so we stayed on course.
Craftmanship
We reckon we’ve had pretty good expertise in sourcing and making wine, and partner David Ridge especially with vast experience in wine, sales, marketing, trends and international wines, we could keep track of what grape sources to tap and which wine people could help us with winemaking. Each of our Redhouse and Mediterrane releases have had the input of some great Australian wine names; people like Dean Hewitson, Ben Glaetzer, David LeMire MW, Peter Leske, David Norman and Sam Scott have taken lead roles in making or supervising each of our consistently successful wines.
Mediterrane statement
We make wine for our own dinner table.
Mediterrane
Our Timeline
SATCO Syndicate Formed
David Ridge and Michael Gray invite a small syndicate to explore export opportunities with their South Australian Trading Company SATCO
1998
Our First Wines Released
We release our first wine, a Shiraz Grenache from McLaren Vale old vines from the 2000 vintage. A second, even more restrained, lighter- weight Redhouse Shiraz Grenache blend emerges from the excellent 2001 vintage. A large quantity of this little beauty is made, carrying us over a couple years. This is followed by the first blending of Barossa Shiraz with McLaren Vale Grenache in another big production of a lovely long-lived release from 2004.
2001 to 2004
Mediterrane developed
Our 2008 red marks a development of the Mediterranean concept, this time, a wine blending the 3 leading red grapes of the Mediterranean zones of France, Spain and Italy. This time the elegance of the cooler Adelaide Hills (Tempranillo) is introduced into the Barossa (Sangiovese) and McLaren Vale (Shiraz) partnership. A great idea and perhaps a bit (too far) ahead of it’s time? The Oz drinker not quite ready for such blending. Yet. Since this first release and a growing appreciation for Sangiovese has seen this the basis of the next 5 releases of Redhouse Mediterrane. In 2009 and 2010 we sourced exceptional Pinot Gris from a Lenswood (Adelaide Hills) vineyard, and in the hands of the masterful Peter Leske, a crisp north-Italian styled Pinot Grigio called ‘Altier’ was released - and sold out almost straight away. Unfortunately, the nature of the difficult 2011 vintage put an end to that source of grapes.
2008 to 2018
Our Current Mediterrane Released
The current, 2016 is exactly what we first set out to make.
2016 is a vintage of fragrant and juicy reds in the Barossa and this shows quite dark cherry and prune Sangiovese fruit characters and tannins, softened by some Eden Valley Merlot (which was so good we nearly bottled this on its own!)
Typical of quality Sangiovese with its drying, savoury finish and that nice bit of zip, this is a mid-weight red that has great adaptability to lots of food. This is our Oz version of Tuscany’s beloved Chianti.