Australian winemakers love their mums. Over the years, many exceptional wines have been created, bottled and labelled as tributes to influential mothers and company matriarchs. Often, those wines – and the stories behind them – touch the hearts of the people who drink them, too.

The first mother-themed wine I remember buying was a bottle of 1988 Eileen Hardy Chardonnay, back in the early 1990s. The label was created by Hardys in honour of the remarkable woman who ran the significant wine business after her husband died in the Kyeema plane crash of 1938.