Mick (Michele) Tortorelli was born in Italy in 1941, became a butcher in 1964 and came to Australia in 1973. But it was really in 1996 that things got interesting for Mick, because it was then that he was at a BBQ with the Vasarellis (supplying some of his famous meat, of course!) and was persuaded to tear out the almond trees from his McLaren Vale property and plant vines on his eight acres instead.

The rest is history… delicious history that you can taste in every glass of Shark’s Block!

The man charged with turning Mick’s top-class fruit into top-class wine is none other than two-time Jimmy Watson Trophy winner, Nigel Dolan. A winemaker and a vigneron need to work in unison to ensure the very best wine is produced – and it certainly helps when the winemaker and the vigneron get along as well as Mick and Nigel! “We get along very well indeed,” says Mick. “No problems at all.” That’s because they share the same goal: to make the very best Shark’s Block wine, year on year.

Mick has been a butcher all his adult life. His ability with the carving knife is something to behold, and the precision and attention to detail that made him such an artisan with the chopping block has made him an artisan in the vineyard.

Like many great winemakers, Nigel knows that good wines start in the vineyard – meaning when the fruit is top notch, his job is that much easier. The entire production of Mick’s vineyard – and only Mick’s vineyard – goes into Shark’s Block each vintage, making Nigel’s job “pretty straightforward.” And even though that is very modest, what Nigel loves about the Tortorelli vineyard is the ancient soils and the proximity to the coast (hence the name of the wine!), which provides for sea breezes that make for a long, even ripening period for the fruit, producing the terrific flavours and concentration for which Shark’s Block is renowned.