Mitolo Wines, McLaren Vale: Cellar door tastings & Little Wolf Osteria
Mitolo Wines in South Australia’s McLaren Vale wine region offers Italian style, structured tastings and fire-cooked meals at the Little Wolf Osteria.
Mitolo Wines brings a distinctive Italian flair to the McLaren Vale wine region, just south of Adelaide at the top of South Australia‘s Fleurieu Peninsula. The Mitolo family, which runs the winery, emigrated from Abruzzo in Italy in the 1950s. They started out as market gardeners. But in 1999 Frank Mitolo started to branch out from growing potatoes to making wines.
The first Mitolo wine came out in 2000, with the G.A.M. shiraz named in honour of Frank Mitolo’s children Gemma, Alex and Marco. Since then, Mitolo Wines has vastly expanded the range.
Where is Mitolo Wines?
The Mitolo Wines cellar door is just to the south west of the town of McLaren Vale. Wirra Wirra and Hugh Hamilton Wines are neighbours, while Ekhidna Wines and Serafino Wines are just around the corner.
There’s a sense of class about Mitolo’s wine tasting room. It goes for style rather than homeliness – it’s at the Milan catwalk end of Italian influence, rather than mamma mia hugginess. The tasting room operates on limited hours – 10am to 5pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then 11am to 4pm on Monday.
Tastings are more structured than at most Australian wineries, and Mitolo Wines charges a fee. The tasting host takes guest through the Mitolo story, then does side by side comparisons from the different Mitolo series. The cheapest tasting is $20, and compares the Jester and Small Batch series. If you spend over $50 on wine afterwards, you get your tasting fee back.
Little Wolf Osteria in McLaren Vale
The Little Wolf Osteria is open for lunch from 12 noon to 3pm, Friday to Sunday. It is also open for dinner on Saturday nights. The Little Wolf Osteria has a much stronger Italian flavour than most winery restaurants. Much of the cooking is done over fire, and chef Vincenzo La Montagna offers an $80 Da Noi (“let us feed you”) menu. This is a selection of Vincenzo’s favourite dishes, served up as a feast for the whole table.
Other McLaren Vale wineries that offer something a little different include Maxwell Wines, Inkwell, d’Arenberg and the Woodstock Winery.
More distinctive Australian wineries
The Home Hill Winery in the Huon Valley, Tasmania.
Witches Falls Winery on Tamborine Mountain in the Gold Coast hinterland, Queensland.
Wise Winery in Eagle Bay, Western Australia.
Golding Wines in Lobethal, Adelaide Hills.
Polperro Winery in Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.