Barcodes are part of our everyday lives, and play an important role for worldwide track and traceability, and equally so, our business responsibility.
Ally Mondillo graduated art school and business studies, moving to Queenstown in the mid 80’s and ran a graphic design studio until 2005 when she took on a full time role at Mondillo and now oversees all administrative functions, marketing, logistics and corporate sales.
Though Ally’s focus is the daily functioning of Mondillo Vineyards, she retains her love for art and design with the Mondillo packaging, advertising and barcode designs.
In 2009, Ally and Domenic decided to take the ‘lines’ of the barcode one step further, have a little fun, and tell extra side stories about Mondillo – our passion for food and wine; our heritage; the vineyard; the wines; our flora and fauna, and depict the stunning environment that we call home, here in Central Otago, New Zealand.
MONDILLO RIESLING
2009 Riesling – The Grapevine
It is all about a healthy grape vine, so it seemed fitting that our very first barcode was the vine with the barcode as the root system.
2011 Riesling – Pheasant Feather
Bendigo was renowned for its bounty of beautiful pheasants that roamed our vineyard and surrounding hills nearby. These days, the most commonly found variety are the brown ring-necked pheasant.
2013 Riesling – Fly Fishing
Domenic’s love of fly-fishing and his passion for food/wine are combined in this barcode. It seems fitting that the vineyard is located near the Clutha River, and a short drive to the Ahuriri River, both wonderful fly-fishing areas. While we are catch-and-release fisherman, we do believe that our dry styled Riesling and fresh fish is a culinary delight.
2014 Riesling – Ten Birthday Balloons
Birthday Vintage: Celebrating ten years with ten balloons.
2015 Riesling – Snowflakes
A reflection of the season. The 2015 growing season produced wonderfully ripe fruit, however, as we picked the Riesling the weather changed dramatically and we woke the following day to the hills covered in snow and a beautiful Central Otago blue-sky day.
2017 Riesling – Central Otago Poplar Trees
Tall, elegant, golden yellow Poplar trees line roadways and waterways throughout Central Otago, part of the picturesque landscape that we call home. 
2018 Riesling – Skinks
‘Running’ from our 2018 Riesling barcode are Skinks. These tiny lizards are a common sight basking in the Bendigo sunshine on the warm rocks throughout the vineyard.
2019 Riesling – Quail Family
Quail are small plump little game birds. Quail families are commonly found in our vineyard taking shelter amongst the trees and tussock. The male has a striking black face, while the female has less obvious plume. The young are numerous and are able to fly at a young age, but stay very close to the adults for protection.
MONDILLO ROSE
Rosé – Dublin Bay Roses
Our Rose label depicts our vineyard Dublin Bay roses. Bright red blooms line the vineyard end posts as you enter the property and not only make for a stunning colour contrast to the vines green canopy, but a few good ‘stories’ about why they are there… 
MONDILLO PINOT NOIR – 750ml
2009 Pinot Noir – Wine Barrel
100% French Oak Barrels are used for our Mondillo Pinot Noir wine, so it seemed only fitting to celebrate the lines of the barcode reflecting the staves of the barrel. 
2010 Pinot Noir – Rabbits
The Bendigo hills are alive with rabbits, making it the perfect hunting location for our English Springer Spaniel, who likes nothing more than to bring us back a collection of live rabbits for us to ‘re-locate’.
2011 Pinot Noir – Stomping the Grapes
Winemaking time... Stomping on the harvest grapes… or was that ‘I Love Lucy’?!
2012 Pinot Noir – Linguine Pasta
Celebrating the combination of food with wine in true Mondillo Italian fashion – pasta!
2013 Pinot Noir – Selected by hand
Our vines and grapes are nurtured throughout the year by our passionate vineyard team. Mondillo grapes are hand harvested each vintage.
2014 Pinot Noir – Ten Birthday Cherries
Birthday Vintage: Celebrating ten years, with a cherry clad birthday cake.
2015 Pinot Noir – Pecorino Cheese
Celebrating the combination of food with wine with grated pecorino, a hard Italian cheese.
2016 Pinot Noir – Wind blown leaves
The rhythmically lines of the barcode tossing our grape leaves around, symbolizes the wind we experienced throughout the growing season. 
MONDILLO PINOT NOIR – 1500ml
2011 Pinot Noir – Historic Gold Mining Hut
Celebrating the historic gold mining huts that can still be found in the Bendigo area behind the vineyard – a great place to explore. Gold was found here in 1862, which brought an immediate influx of miners and prospectors.
2012 Pinot Noir – The Remarkables
Our spectacular Central Otago landscape (and the view we wake up to each day) the magnificent Remarkables mountain range, rolling down majestically to the shores of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown.
2013 Pinot Noir – Grape Press
The iconic French Grape press that sits on display in our Mondillo tasting room, used for pressing grape juice samples in days gone by.
2014 Pinot Noir – Birthday Cake
Birthday Vintage: Cake with 10 candles and 10 cherries celebrating 10 vintages.
2015 Pinot Noir – Miners Wagon
Scattered around the Bendigo Historic area, miners’ wagons (called drays) from the gold mining era, still can be seen today. 
2016 Pinot Noir – Gecko Lizard
Commonly found living among the vineyard schist rocks, the Gecko is approximately 50-70mm long and typically olive-grey or dark brown with banded or blotched markings. Geckos are extremely quick and shy little creatures. 
MONDILLO LATE HARVEST RIESLING ‘NINA’
The Nina labels proved to be challenging as we had such a small area to work with for our designs, so we selected to celebrate the plants and flowers found growing at Bendigo.
2011 Late Harvest Riesling ‘Nina’ – Vine Tendrils
New vine tendrils are so delicate and fine; they seemed an appropriate way to introduce our first vintage of our late harvest dessert wine called ‘Nina’.
2012 Late Harvest Riesling ‘Nina’ – Vipers Bugloss Flower
The Vipers Bugloss plant grows wild in the arid Bendigo landscape and throughout the vineyard hills. The flowers are loved by beekeepers (hence the honeybees on the barcode), as the honey has a delicate flavor. 
2014 Late Harvest Riesling ‘Nina’ – Ten Birthday Candles
Birthday Vintage: Celebrating ten years with 10 candles. 
2015 Late Harvest Riesling ‘Nina’ – Iris Flower
Scattered around Bendigo Station, these large Irises, with enormous heads, come in rich, deep colours of yellow, purples and reds and seem to spring up out of the dusty ground throughout summer.
2016 Late Harvest Riesling ‘Nina’ – California Buttercup Flower
Proliferate self-seeding plants they pop up amongst the Riesling rows in front of the tasting room over summer and bring a mass of yellow to the desert like vineyard landscape.
2017 Late Harvest Riesling ‘Nina’ – Poppies
Bright red poppies dot the barren Central Otago landscape and can be found springing up out of the dry earth in the vineyard with their amazing bobbing heads. 
2018 Late Harvest Riesling ‘Nina’ – Sunflowers
Our organic vegetable garden is lined with huge sunflowers to add a splash of colour to the green surrounds. These bright ‘happy’ flowers feature on our 2018 Nina.
BELLA RESERVE – MONDILLO PINOT NOIR
Pinot Noir – Bella
Bella Vino, Beautiful Wine.
Apart from the Italian name connection, it seemed only fitting that our English Springer Spaniel (named Bella) was celebrated for her fabulous hunting skills around the vineyard. Our barcode depicts her coming up from the grass, with her eyes firmly on the bird that got away…
