Mornington Peninsula (Vic)

The Story

Ten Minutes by Tractor is the convergence of a series of journeys that began almost 30 years ago, a series of individual threads that fortuitously came together over time to create the winery that exists today.

In 2002, after more than a decade of running his own businesses and CEO roles, Martin decided it was time to make a radical change of direction and realise his vision of becoming a winemaker. In December 2003, Martin visited the cellar door of his favourite small winery on the Mornington Peninsula – the Ten Minutes By Tractor Wine Co. – and after discovering that it was for sale, he knew he’d found the winery he had been searching for.

Since the founding families first chose three unique sites for vineyards, Martin has focussed on making wine that is specific to the place, to the Mornington Peninsula, to Main Ridge and to individual blocks on individual vineyards.

The Approach

Owner Martin Spedding, Richard McIntyre and assistant winemaker Jeremy Magyar create all the wines from owned vineyards. Their winemaking philosophy is governed by their aspiration as wine producers to best portray their unique vineyards. This demands that they follow a more non-interventionist, traditional approach to winemaking, by allowing their indigenous yeasts to do the fermentations and using traditional Burgundian methods to enhance the expression of the terroir or character of the ‘place’ from which the wine is derived. These techniques assist them in producing the wines of great elegance, complexity and length for which the region is renowned.

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