Wine Region	McLaren Vale, South Australia
Wine Maker	Mike Brown
In 1980 Paul and Jill Buttery took a punt and put all their hard earned money into buying a vineyard on Tatachilla Road in the heart of the McLaren Vale wine region. A few years later they purchased another vineyard with land on the eastern side of the region in the foothills near McLaren Flats and called it Gemtree. Here they set about gradually planting the rest of the land to vines.
The Gemtree label was launched in 1998. Today Gemtree owns 330 acres of prime vineyards with varieties such as shiraz, Tempranillo, Sangiovese, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Riesling, Semillon, Alborino and Verdelho.
Since 1998 Gemtree has also been developing the 10ha Gemtree Wetlands. Having created 6 dams and planted 20,000 native trees and plants they are now working in partnership with Greening Australia creating an area of Biodiversity which is a major haven for native plants, frogs, birds and animals as well as being a great teaching resource for the community.
The Buttery family, first generation winemakers drawing on the inherent expertise of three generations of grape growers. Gemtree aims to ensure that they set precedence in sustainable agricultural practice, which shows through in the high quality wines produced using minimal wine making intervention. Winemaker Mike Brown believes that “choices made in the vineyard from pruning through to harvesting all determine the ultimate characteristic of the wine.”