Morten was raised in the Provence region of the South of France, a region world famous for its religion of food and wine. The Hallgren family owned and operated Domaine de Castel Roubine, a 270 acre estate with 170 acres of vineyards. While archaeological findings on the estate date back to the Roman era, the first documentation of grapegrowing on the estate dates back to 1307 and the Temple Order. Prior to the French revolution, the estate belonged to various great French families including the De Villeneuve, while the estate covered some 60,000 acres. 

Castel Roubine was a culinary paradise, surrounded by vineyards and fruit trees: fig, apricot, cherry, pear, apple, all types of berry bushes and wild herbs like rosemary, thyme, laurier and fennel. The family built a new, state-of-the-art winery and expanded the distribution of its wines to most of Western Europe and North America. Morten spent years in the vineyards honing his viticultural skills along side his future brother-in-law Jean Michel, and in the cellar, learning the traditional methods of fine European winemaking.