The 'two hands' are Michael Twelftree and Richard Mintz who formed the company in 1999 with the clear objective of making the best possible shiraz based wines from prized shiraz producing regions within Australia.

Michael Twelftree, initially from a construction background, spent a number of years exporting Australian wine to USA and Asia. Richard Mintz, a chartered accountant, was formerly CEO of one of Australia's leading cooperages in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. With Twelftree’s contacts and wine savvy approach and Mintz’s management skills and business acumen, the two old friends decided to make some wine together.

In 2000 they started with just 17 tonnes of fruit from the McLaren Vale and Padthaway wine regions. From the beginning the wines were very well received at home and abroad with a healthy stream of reviews, culminating in 2004 with Robert M. Parker pronouncing Two Hands as "the finest negociant operation south of the equator".