Over 160 years the Morris family has earned an esteemed reputation as one of the most prominent wine-making families in Australia.  

Today, sixth generation and current winemaker Madden Morris continues the family's winemaking history combining tradition with contemporary techniques, ensuring that the Morris name remains one of the Australia’s most iconic and respected wine family dynasties.  

The Morris range of fortified, table and sparkling wines continue to be made with the same love, passion and traditional winemaking techniques that has been the hallmark of Morris since 1859. 

Following in his father’s footsteps, Madden Morris is the sixth-generation Chief Winemaker at Morris of Rutherglen. Growing up walking around the Cellar and tasting Muscats, Madden considers Rutherglen his home, noting that the region’s supportive community is at the winery’s heart.   

Having previously worked at Rutherglen Estates, Chapoutier in the Rhone Valley, and Casella Family Brands in Yenda, Madden has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry. Employing a simple winemaking philosophy of ‘It’s easier to get it right the first time,’ Madden finds that taking the time to initially perfect a wine is the key step to an effective winemaking approach.  

Madden enjoys the vintage period most of all, considering it the time that really shapes the wine, and where the build-up and excitement of waiting for the grapes culminates in a review of the vintage. By reflecting on the year that was, vintage is a time of growth and consolidation, finding what worked well and what didn’t. Madden considers richness and balance key profiles in wines, similarly, appreciating heavily peated and smoky whisky.  

Madden considers family essential to his journey in winemaking where he has been able to work with wines that generations of Morris hands have touched before. His father and grandfather, David, and Mick Morris, have been immense role models in Madden’s life, having made him aware of the winery’s focus on tradition, while also keeping an eye on the future generations to come.