2010 ~ No. 3    

The Yarra Valley, Day 2

First of all, let me just say, waking up to a vineyard view and enjoying breakfast overlooking a gorgeous flower garden (pictured) is one heck of a good way to start the morning. Steve Webber and Leanne De Bortoli graciously let us stay in their small guest apartment nestled among the vines, and this is where Brian picked us up in the morning.

Our first stop was just across the road at Graeme Miller Wines, where Graeme’s wife Bernie led us through the tasting. At one time, Graeme – with 40+ years in the business – owned what is now De Bortoli and was Chateau Yarina during his stewardship.

The winery makes an array of wines from sparkling to a fortified, Port-style wine dubbed - for legal reasons - “Fort.” My aunt described their wines as “pleasant as all get out,” high praise from her. The Petit Verdot, Chardonnay (partially fermented with wild yeast) and Fort (made with Cabernet, not any Portuguese varietals) were among my favorites. Each had a smooth elegance with clean, precise flavors.

We moved on to Pimpernel Vineyards, a winery so new they were still building the winery and tasting room! (It should be completed by now, with paving; we had to walk over dirt and rocks to get there!) Before our arrival, Mark Horrigan, winemaker, owner and cardiologist, had upended a barrel to use as the tasting table, with bottles and glassware arranged by his wife and daughter. (“Best nose in the family,” he noted of her skills.)

Their wines include an apple-y, slightly buttery, nicely rounded Chardonnay; a savory Shiraz with notes of dark berries; and a Cabernet/Merlot blend.

Pinot Noir is the specialty here, and the two we tasted from the 2008 vintage were superb. The regular Pinot was maybe a bit spicy but had great notes of rose, violet, bramble and smoke.

The reserve, which had a longer maceration and a slightly different mix of clones, shows the same peppery and spicy notes while offering greater body and structure, as well as lots of lifted fruit flavor.

During our conversation, Mark discovered I was a wine writer and invited us into the barrel room to taste the individual lots. The first barrel of Pinot was bright and savory, with earthy notes. The second group, made with the 777 clone, was fruity, with the flavor hitting mid-palate. The third, made up of the 114 and 115 clones, had an intense, sparkly quality.

Putting them together, it was easy to see how these lots complemented each other, such as filling in flavors at the front of the palate and on the finish. These parts created a delicious, multi-layered cuvee that had me writing simply, “Mmmmm…”

Pimpernel’s small production (about 2,000 cases) stays mostly in Melbourne; I am really hoping some will eventually make it to these shores.

Lunch was enjoyed at Bella Vedere, part of the Badger’s Brook estate. The food was fresh and beautifully prepared. It is sourced locally and the menu changes daily. Despite the fact it was summer, I ordered the lamb stew. But instead of being a heavy, wintery dish, it was crafted for the season; it was the most amazingly tender and lightest lamb stew imaginable. The meal was enhanced, of course, by our view of the vines.

Alas, it was time to move on. The tasting at Madden’s Rise literally started with a bang. Our tour guide, Brian, stepped outside and as the very tall, all-glass door closed, a shot rang out. Not a gun going off, but the sound of an enormous piece of safety glass shattering into a million pieces.

Our hostess, Emma, recovered quickly, noted that a stone had hit the glass earlier, thus weakening it, and made sure we all had a bit of wine to settle our nerves.

At any rate, this small winery released its first vintage in 2003 and opened its cellar door less than a year ago. They take a natural approach to winemaking, increasingly using biodynamic or organic practices, hand-picking and -sorting the fruit, using only wild yeast fermentation and bottling the wine with no fining or filtration.

Emma was chatty, welcoming and simply lots of fun as she led us through their regular and reserve wines. Their varietals encompass many of the usual suspects – Chardonnay, Viognier, Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Cabernet. The wines were old-world in style, showing an earthy restraint and, in the reds, flavors of bramble and dusty fruit, as well as a flinty minerality in the whites.

At this point, my aunt and I were wined out and Brian accommodated our taste for something different – sort of!

Earlier in the tour, he’d told us about the Yarra Valley Dairy, known for its artisanal cheese. And, he said gleefully, they usually had wine tastings on Saturday evenings!

So, a quick break for cheese tasting and buying – it was good! True to Brian’s word, there were not one but two winemakers there pouring their wares. It turned out to be a good thing; we needed some wine with our cheese.

We would up with a few bottles from Finestra, a tiny winery (7 acres) that makes some earthy and luscious Pinot Noirs. One of the bottles made its way home with me, and I am hoarding it in my cellar. I know, it’s not what you’re supposed to do, but it will be ages before I can get more, so there you are. Somebody give me a good occasion to enjoy it!

Mornington Peninsula

Thankfully, there was a day of rest before we met up with Paul Robinson to head to the Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne’s answer to the Hamptons.

Our first stop was Moorooduc Estate, a winery you really have to want to get to, as it’s down a long and rutted path. (Road seems too grand a term.) In fact, winemaker Richard McIntyre allows that a certain percentage of their visitors are actually lost.

Finding Moorooduc, however, is their gain. The estate specializes in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, though a few other grapes also find their way into bottle. Among the wines tasted were the Robinson Vineyard Chardonnay and the McIntyre Vineyard Chardonnay – an interesting set as they are made exactly the same, but using different clones. Both are fully barrel fermented, with 30% new French oak.

The Robinson version was soft, with evident oak influence and a bit of a bite at the finish. In contrast, the McIntyre Chardonnay was sprightly and prickly on the palate with notable citrus flavors.

Each of their Pinots also had its own character, ranging from bright, floral and savory to a very earthy, tea- and cola-infused, Burgundian style wine.

We moved next to Willow Creek Vineyard, where fellow named Ian greeted us warmly and we bellied up to the bar to begin tasting. The first sip was a gorgeous bubbly, equal parts Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It was light and refreshing with terrific notes of bread, flowers and apples. “Want more,” say my notes.

They also make a mouthwatering estate Chardonnay, with just a touch of French oak giving it a luscious round feel. In addition to their Pinot Noir, they make a lovely Cabernet with grapes from the last 10 rows of these vines on the estate. (Most were pulled in favor of Pinot Noir.) It drinks smoothly with classic notes of bramble, mint and herbs.

Also worth noting is Benedictus, made with Pinot Noir from vineyards at a higher elevation and with more rain than their estate vineyard. While the latter is soft and savory, the Benedictus is rougher and more earthy on the nose and surprisingly soft and minerally on the palate.

Salix, the on-site restaurant, was our lunch destination. Local ingredients are again key, which was reflected in the freshness of the fare. In addition to sourcing from nearby farms and merchants, many products are made on-site, from bread and gnocchi to honeycomb and ice cream.

Fully sated, we went next to Balnarring Vineyard, which was rather the opposite of Willow Creek in terms of looks. The former is new and sleek, the latter a bit rustic and rough-hewn. (Their motto, in fact, is “Deliciously different with a rustic tone.”)

Our tasting took place in the barrel room complete with an enormous, wine-stained wooden table and resident orange-striped feline, pictured posing among the barrels.

Unfortunately, winemaker Kathleen Quealy and her husband were en route from another event so it was their teenage son who greeted us and poured the wines. While he contributed tidbits, Paul actually led us through much of the tasting! (This was a really fun stop!)

These were among the most diverse wines we tasted. We started with their dry Muscat (crisp with orange and vanilla notes) and finished with their sweet one (blood orange, cream, white flowers and tropical fruits, among other flavors.)

In between were a Pinot Grigio/Friulano blend that had notes of honeysuckle and orange in both the heady aromas and sharp, precise flavors; a tart, orange-y Friulano, a classically minerally Chardonnay, delightfully luscious Viognier, two earthy, savory, pretty Pinot Noirs, and a Sangiovese-Shiraz-Pinot Noir blend dubbed “Rageous” for obvious reasons.

Sadly (or perhaps not) it was time for a break. There was, conveniently, a place called Red Hill Cheese near our next stop and Paul was persuaded to take us there. They offered a lovely cheese tasting plate, and we enjoyed ranking our favorites. (Tops was Mountain Goat Blue, a self-explanatory name!)

After the interlude, we headed across the street to Main Ridge Estate, the first winery established in the Mornington Peninsula back in 1975, with the first vintage released in 1980.

Nat White, owner and winemaker, came to us pour his wines. He crafts primarily Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also makes one barrel of Merlot (planted along with Cabernet Sauvignon “as a hedge,” Nat explains) and another barrel of Pinot Meunier each year.

Total production is about 1,000 cases. The barrel room, located just down the stairs from the tasting room, is slightly larger than a starter apartment in New York City.

Our final stop of the day was Ten Minutes by Tractor, so named for how long it takes to travel from one of their three vineyards to the next. It was crowded and bustly here, so much so that it took several minutes to even get started tasting, and the pourer was continually moving from group to group.

Anyway, it’s no surprise that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir form the core of their plantings. These white wines see varying levels of oak, but even those with the most time in barrel maintain their crisp minerality. Likewise, the Pinots see either nine or 15 months in barrel, with flavors ranging from spicy and minerally to savory with notes of cherry and pepper.

There were two particularly interesting wines. First was a barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc. (Yes, you read that right.) The wine sees no stainless steel, only old French oak barrels, and goes through a partial secondary fermentation. The result shows none of the wine’s typical herbaceousness, adding instead an interesting peppery spice note to the tart feel.

The other was an almost 5-year-old Wallace Vineyard Pinot Noir (vines pictured). It was crafted as an experiment, with the grapes going through a whole bunch press and fermenting for 20 days before pressing and racking.

The wine tasted a bit like brandy, with a touch of caramel. It was easy on the palate and quite lovely to drink.

And then, just like that, it was over: Three days, sixteen wineries and some really good cheese in the rearview mirror as we returned, subdued but satisfied, to our apartment in Melbourne.

What's a Clone?

To many, the word clone has Frankenstein connotations, something concocted by science in the lab. In the world of grapes, it’s much less sinister.

Grapes have a tendency to mutate, naturally (and asexually) creating variations on a theme, as opposed to a whole new piece of music. The differences are often small and nearly impossible to distinguish genetically. For example, a clone might have a slightly different color, cluster formation or berry size.

Desirable clones are then propagated from cuttings or buds of the “mother clone.”

These photos show the Pinot Noir Dijon Clone 777 and the Pinot Noir Dijon Clone 115, both planted in Oregon’s Noble Knob Vineyards.

About These Regions

The thoughtful reader might have noticed that an awful lot of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grows in this part of Australia. It’s no accident. The Yarra Valley is considered Australia’s answer to Burgundy and the Mornington Peninsula also offers a cool climate quite suitable to these grapes.

Yet, these wines weren’t full on, old-world Burgundian style. Rather, they had an ability to straddle old world and new in terms of style and flavor.

This runs counter to perception of Aussie wines as fruity and new world in style. Of course, that image also likely derives from some of the country’s best-known wines: big, bold Barossa Valley Shiraz.

That Barossa is a hot, dry region and Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula cool and breezy has everything to do with the difference.

The Yarra Valley lies some 55 miles east of Melbourne. This area prospered viticulturally during the mid-1800s, garnering an international reputation for quality wine. The area’s decline began with the depression of 1890; within 30 years, there were no wineries or vineyards left.

Then in the 1960’s, several doctors (Ph.D. and M.D.) felt that consumer taste for stickies – the sweet wines that then held the lion’s share of the market – was waning and that the time was right for a revival of dry wines. They began to purchase land and replant vines in the Yarra Valley.

Their instincts proved correct. By the 1990s, the number of wineries there exceeded the high mark set a century earlier.

This area benefits from a cool climate, long growing season and light yields. Vineyards to the north grow in red volcanic soils while the southern vines grow in loamy soil. There are numerous microclimates and exposures, allowing for a range of grapes and wine styles to succeed.

Likewise, the Mornington Peninsula is a cool climate, though that’s a bit of an understatement. “Profoundly maritime” is more accurate. Sandwiched between Port Phillip Bay and Bass Strait, the wind is rarely not blowing.

These effects are mitigated by situating vineyards on sites that protect them from the wind. The landscape is open, with gently rolling hills and can be an almost too-easy place to grow grapes. (Hint: warmer vintages are better.) There are several soil types, including red volcanic, sandy, and a sandy-clay mix.

The first attempts at winegrowing in Mornington Peninsula took place unsuccessfully in the 1950s. By the mid 1970s, when Main Ridge began planting, the market and interest in these wines primed the area for success.

And the rest, as they say, is history.