Momento Mori Wines

"I used to be a musician... I started making electronic music and then took the step to do everything with analog gear and not use digital gear at all. I guess I've adapted that philosophy to winemaking." - Dane Johns

Momento Mori is Dane Johns and his wife Hannah, who farm two small plots in Gippsland, Victoria and another small 1.5 hectare plot beneath the Black Snake Ranges in the Tonimbuk Valley. All of their wines scream ‘hand-made’: strict organic principles, small ferments, wild yeast, no new oak or mechanical pumps used on the wines, no fining or filtering and no additions, including no S02 at any stage of wine making. All of them full of character, freshness and purity.

Their other project, Nikau farm, is an expansive property of about 95 acres in the Baw Baw region of Gippsland, Victoria. The property has 2 small plots (0.75h each) of vines on it, both about 27 years old, which have been farmed organically since they were planted. With only 490 bottles produced a year, we got a super small allocation of their white and red.