Our Story

As a chef, Brendan’s love of natural wine goes hand in hand with his ethos of working with producers who have a great respect for the land, sea and in creating the very best organic and sustainable food products. 

In 2014, his passion for natural wine grew to experimenting and making wine himself under his own label, Carto Wines. 

Brendan finds the winemaking process educational, with the challenges only proving to further build on his knowledge of it. In addition to making wine in Australia, he has also completed vintages in France and Italy which have seen his understanding of the process grow even more. 

Brendan makes wine with handpicked fruit from a select number of vineyards around The Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale and always certified organic or non-sprayed with herbicide and pesticide. This is the beginning of how he feels natural wine should be made.

Once picked, the grapes are transported back to the winery in the Adelaide Hills @ Brackenwood Vineyard

Winemaking is a very hands off and natural process, with wild ferments, ageing in older French oak barrels, ceramic amphora and INOX stainless steel. With no fining or filtration and with only a tiny addition of sulphur to some ferments added just prior to bottling.

Production is small and we only work with quality fruit from growers we are passionate about to try and showcase the true terroir of the vineyard without blending and and keeping as much “single vineyard” sites as we can