Frank’s Italian heritage provided him with an early introduction to wine appreciation and winemaking, while his roots are rich in horticultural history spanning three generations. With the active involvement and support of his wife Simone and their children Gemma, Alexander and Marco being their inspiration, their first wine G.A.M., a 2000 McLaren Vale Shiraz was produced.
In 2001, winemaker Ben Glaetzer became a partner in the business. Since then, Mitolo has gone from strength to strength. The Mitolo winemaking philosophy is to deliver wines that express purity of varietal flavour, show elegance of structure with soft tannins whilst being rich, powerful and complex. From vineyard sourcing to high quality winemaking techniques, the wines are handcrafted to ensure the individual nuances of the vineyard and variety is maintained.
Only the best quality fruit is selected, aged in fine grained oak, to make elegant wines of intense richness and complexity. Soft tannins ensure that the wines can be enjoyed at any age. Frank Mitolo commenced his own wine company as a result of a keen interest in wine and winemaking. Frank’s Italian heritage provided him with an early introduction to wine appreciation whilst his roots are rich in horticultural history spanning three generations.
Winemaker Ben Glaetzer, became a partner in the business in 2001 to ensure the fulfillment of the Mitolo vision – to create individual and handcrafted wines which are built on passion and uncompromising commitment to quality. Ben Glaetzer has a reputation as a dynamic and progressive young winemaker with a family tradition in winemaking. His extensive international experience and attention to detail have ensured the creation of the best interpretation of McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley regional wines, using the finest fruit, intuitive winemaking and aged in super fine oak.
The fusion of Ben’s exceptional winemaking talent with Frank’s intimate knowledge of the land and business acumen, has formed a potent partnership. Together they share a passion and common vision for creating unique wines of uncompromising quality. This uncompromising commitment to quality ensures that only the finest quality fruit is used from selective vineyard sourcing. All the grapes are picked on flavour ripeness which contributes to the soft, ripe tannins and vibrant fruit which is a key characteristic of all Mitolo Wines. Ageing occurs in fine grained French oak selected to suit the nuances of the individual parcels of fruit.
The Mitolo McLaren vineyards are situated in the most southern tip of the McLaren Vale region at Willunga, overlooking the coast. The vineyard soil types are heavy grey loam over sandstone soils, with black cracking Biscay clays intermixed. These soils have excellent water-holding capacity and require minimal irrigation. Being so close to the coast it experiences slightly warmer days in summer than the Vales giving incredible fruit intensity and excellent tannin ripeness. It also has the advantage of cool afternoon breezes and nights which helps to maintain
The Mitolo Greenock vineyard lies approximately 15km to the North-West of the geographical heart of the Barossa Valley. The altitude of Greenock varies markedly with the undulating hills, the Mitolo vineyards sitting at approximately 440 metres ASL. The vineyard rows have a North/South orientation meaning the canopy captures maximum sunlight throughout the day and is cooled by the southerly valley winds during the afternoon. This orientation also reduces the risk of canopy damage during days of intense heat and hot northerly winds. Average daily maximum temperature during summer is 25 degrees with a cool 12 degrees average night temperature. The vineyard is supplementary drip irrigated as the light sandy soil has exceptionally poor water holding capacity, on average the vines receive only one period of non-rainfall irrigation per season.
