Journey of evolution

Local winemakers call it the Pinot Coast – the southern Victorian coastline where you’ll find the vibrant Mornington Peninsula wine region. At Stonier Wines, one of the region’s founding wineries, Mike crafts acclaimed Pinot Noir that’s bright, fragrant and full of flavour.

“I think Pinot Noir has really come a long way in the world,” he says. “In the past, everyone used to talk about Burgundy [in France]. But people are now starting to talk about Burgundy and the other Pinot Noir regions in the world. And Mornington Peninsula is definitely one of those.”

Chardonnay is Mike’s other love, which he discusses at length among the wine barrels and tanks with fellow Stonier winemaker Will Byron, as they try to produce a better wine than the year before.

As an up-and-coming winemaker, Mike learned from one of the best when he joined Brian Croser’s Petaluma in the late 1980s and returned years later to ultimately become senior winemaker. In between, he worked in the wineries of the renowned Antinori family in Tuscany, Italy, for three years.

There he learned about a sustainable way to farm that involved caring for the soil with organic matter to produce healthy vines and pristine fruit. Mike brought this philosophy to Stonier Wines when he started there in 2008.

“You can’t produce premium wine unless you really link to the vineyard side of things,” he says. “It’s not winemaking wizardry, it’s the vineyards and looking after that fruit all the way through.”

Mike takes a minimal-intervention approach in the winery to craft wines that express the nuances of the vineyard, driven every day by the desire to keep evolving. 

“The eternal question is: how do you make something better?” says Mike. “It’s a challenge and something that keeps us intrigued and involved and connected to what we’re doing. Which is exciting.”

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