Montalto was a long time in the making. In the 1980’s we lived in the UK, and spent summers in the south of France overlooking the vineyards rolling down to the Mediterranean. It was there, over lazy summer lunches, glass of rose in hand, that we dreamed. We decided to plant a few vines at our house on the coast of the Mornington Peninsula. When we returned to Australia in 1990, John set about turning the dream into reality, and studied viticulture at the University of Melbourne’s Dookie campus.