The Winery
Mino & Co Wines, was established in 1997 and has been producing wines of various styles, suited to the local Terroir.
The winery is located in a small village called Hanwood, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. This region is associated as the 'Riverina' region of NSW.
The Riverina is a warm climate region and is well known for producing heavier style red classic wines such as Durif, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Predominant classic dry white varietals found in the area range from Chardonnay, Semillon and Pinot Grigio.
The Riverina is further credited for its world class Botrytis Semillon, a grape left on the vine to ripen and inherit the Botrytis fungus, also commonly referred to as the 'Noble Rot'. The wine is then produced into a sweet, concentrated dessert wine.
In more recent times growers, and more specifically The Winery, have begun planting various Italian Varietals due to the Guglielmino families Italian history and passion for producing these styles. The warmer climate and terroir can be compared with that of the Southern areas of Italy, where the indigenous varieties originated. These varieties typically use up to 65% less water than your classic varieties.
The Winery also sources cool climate parcels of fruit from specific growers in South Australia. Regions such as Adelaide Hills & Barossa Valley.
Mino & Wines produce Italian varietals on a boutique scale, predominantly for the domestic market in Australia and has found great success in doing so.
The Guglielmino family are passionate about displaying their Italian heritage in their selection of wine styles and believe there is a balance between adopting innovative techniques amongst the traditional methods of wine making which have been passed down through the generations.
IMAGE: Three generations sharing a bowl of pasta and Signor Vino. FROM LEFT: Alain Guglielmino, Domenic Guglielmino & Antonio Guglielmino
"The Australian wine market is a fast moving industry and the general consumer is becoming more open and accepting to foreign wine varietals. The young wine drinking population are a generation of adventurers with open minds and open hearts and we plan on pushing the boundaries of the industry and capturing the minds and hearts of the consumer with our wines" says Alain Guglielmino, Operations Manager at The Winery.
"The wine industry in Australia is flooded with traditional wine labels and typical well-known varietals. We believe an effective measure to differentiate us as quality producers against the larger wineries, is to explore this new wave scene while the consumers are open to it. I think the boom in the craft beer scene on the domestic market is a great example of this" adds Nicholas Guglielmino, Business Development Manager at The Winery.
The Winery's Head Winemaker, Sam Trimboli shows his passion and outstanding skill in ensuring each wine meets expectations and quality standards. Sam is extremely enthusiastic about winemaking and the wine industry, and this is reflected in his work and finished wines. Signor Vino wines are nurtured from the early stages where Sam and The Winery growers liaise closely to ensure farming standards are met.
During the ferment stages, the juice is monitored closely on a 24 hour a day basis and all measures are taken to warrant a healthy ferment. The wines, are then nurtured and treated accordingly, and some put onto selected oak until the finishing stages and bottling preparations. Throughout the entire production stage, the Guglielmino family, with the winemaker, will hold regular meetings and tastings to ensure everyone is "on the same page" and the wines are heading in the right direction.
IMAGE: Tasting wine in Barrels whilst topping.
Once the finished wine has ticked all the boxes and all participating individuals sign off, it is sent to bottle and finally distributed into the market.
SUSTAINABILTY
At Mino & Co Wines, we continue to implement and improve our sustainable vineyard and winemaking practices. It has been a key focus and priority for our winery in its history and will continue to be into our future.
Some of the key practices we have in place are as follows.
- Sustainable framing practices, include water conservation in the vineyard and the cellar. We have various dams located on the winery grounds to catch water and up-cycle to feed our vineyards. We also have a serious of industry leading settling ponds and dams to treat waste water out of the winery which is used on the estate to water our grapes and garden.
- Use of lower risk pesticides in the vineyard. Moving off synthetic products both in the vineyard and in the winery is a major focus to the winery. These practices include using 100% vegan additives for all of our wines. In vineyard we plant varieties that are resistant to mildews and are using bio-pesticides that are based on botanical ingredients. These practices are typically more expensive.
- The winery composts all its grape Marc and use as fertiliser on the vineyard.
- For over 5 years, Mino & Co has been operating off a 100KW Solar System which supplies daily power to the winery as opposed to purchasing off the grid.
- We use VSDs on all of our pumps and major machinery to reduce energy consumption on start up/wind downs.
- The winery is also HACCP accredited in our wine production. This relates more to food safety but is worth mentioning as international accreditation is a vigorous process. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point and is a system that recognises a food/beverage business has developed, documented and implemented tools to help identify and control food safety hazards.
