I was out on a morning bushwalk when the ping of an incoming SMS drew me out of my forest trance. ‘Estoy llevando Tempranillo y voy a moler como a las 10.30’. It was my Argentine friend, Martin, and he had just received 600 kilos of Tempranillo grapes and was about to crush them. I had asked Martin to let me know when he was going to crush so I could watch the processing. I had hoped for more than a two-hour notice … but that’s the wine industry. You don’t make schedules during vintage, you just pick fruit when Mother Nature tells you to.

I made a U-turn on my bushwalking trek and was soon out at Martin’s father in law’s house which also serves as the wine processing facilities for Mordrelle Wines. I could smell the already fermenting Tempranillo grapes before I could see them. When you arrive at an Aussie winery during vintage you expect to see a cast of thousands wearing short shorts and gum boots and yielding high pressure sprays. But it was quiet at Mordrelle Wines and I found Martin giving the high pressure sprayer a workout on some bins. He’s the winemaker, the viticulturist, the lab technician, the cellar hand and the chief bottle washer. Today, I was happy to be his cellar hand.

Tempranillo is a Spanish grape variety which started attracting attention in Australia a little over a decade ago. Mordrelle Wines has never made a Tempranillo but Martin was confident that he had a great batch of grapes and was already thinking of an Argentine/Spanish name for his new wine.

Martin has a tiny crusher/destemmer and so he started shovelling the 600 kilos of grape to begin turning grapes into wine. It was hard work but I could tell the excitement of making a great wine gave Martin the strength to toss shovel after shovel load of grapes into the crusher.

We will have to wait a few years before Martin releases his 2017 Tempranillo. I’ll enjoy that wine even more knowing I was there to see the grapes crushed.