the Madeleines story...      

Winemaker Chris Dix & Vigneron Peter Belej

The original Vincognita was established in 1999 by highly awarded winemaker Chris Dix.  Chris was winemaker at Lindemans where he oversaw the production of huge corporate blends.  It was the discovery of some old vine shiraz that sent him out to the back shed to handcraft his own wine.

But the dabbling started well before that.  After working vintage at St. Huberts in the Yarra Valley in 1993, Chris drove to Coonawarra to see his girlfriend.  The future in-laws were less than impressed when Chris rocked up from Melbourne with a hogshead of Yarra Valley Cabernet in the boot of his Kingswood.  "Bloody hell Christopher, what the hell is that" cried Bob.  "um, just a bit of home brew" came the sheepish response from Chris "It drove alright, the only problem was every time I went over a bump, the headlights shone into the treetops because of the weight in the back" he added.  We're please to say it all ended well, the barrel was taken into care at Katnook where Chris worked and was bottled the next year.  Oh, and Bob got his cut of the wine.

Then in 2000, Chris had his heavily pregnant wife Janelle out picking grapes and lifting the crusher onto the back of the ute. He'd prefer we don't dwell on that one because he's copped enough grief already.  By 2002 Chris wanted to get his hands on some viognier grapes and the oldest block around was run by a bloke with the nickname 'Grumpy' (aka vigneron, Peter Belej).  Oh, great thought Chris - this is going to go well.  Chris rang him up and asked the question "can I buy some viognier grapes"?.  Well Grumpy's response was short and sharp - "No !" and then an explanation "we'll make it together".  That was the start of a great partnership that has involved many late nights, bruises, cracked ribs, a lost finger and countless other stories.

Chris Dix went on to become Chief Winemaker at Fox Creek in McLaren Vale for 5 years from 2004 to 2009.  It was here he won the 2006 Hyatt Advertiser Wine of the Year for Shiraz and the overall Wine of the Year, in additions to multiple other Gold medals in international & domestic wine shows.  Chris continues to make the Madeleines wines and also consults to several other grapegrowers and wine producers.

Madeleines is based in the heart of Shiraz and Viognier country: McLaren Vale and Nangkita in the Southern Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia.  

The Nangkita Vineyard lies at the southern end of the Mt Lofty ranges just outside the Adelaide Hills wine region.  It lies halfway between McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek, being the 'Bullseye' in the centre of the Fleurieu Peninsula.

Where is Nangkita ? (click for map)

Our main focus is on Northern Rhone style wines, not only because we love them, but because the varieties suit our area so well.  Shiraz and Viognier from our vineyard coupled with Shiraz from what we believe are the oldest vines in Willunga help us create flavoursome, rich and complex wines. 

Interestingly, Nangkita is similar to Bordeaux in that its only 30 km from the ocean.  Nangkita is more elevated with less rainfall giving great concentration of fruit in the Bordeaux varietals of Sauvignon blanc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon.

By applying all our viticultural and winemaking knowledge and expertise, coupled with innovative techniques that can only ever be 'small scale', we have complete control of quality throughout the whole grape-growing and winemaking process.

This means our production is quite limited and we have significant demand from customers for our wines.  Most years we will sell out of the wine before the next vintage is released.  All we can suggest is to order the wine while we still have stocks - there are no plans to increase our bottlings because we need to make the wines ourselves to ensure genuine and authentic wines that reflect where they are grown.

Madeleines is committed to making quality handmade wine from selected vineyard estates.