Yarra Valley wineries

[orangeblossom]

Hi. 1st time on this thread

I'll be visiting the Yarra Valley in Melbourne next week and I would like some recommendations on good wineries/wines to look out for when i'm there. I'm much more of a food person, and don't really know about wines so I'd be grateful for some recommendations.

Thanks!

[jrufusj]

If you're in the Yarra Valley, I'd definitely visit Yarra Yering. I've never had their pinot, but have had the YY#1 (cab) and the YY#2 (syrah with some viognier and marsanne/roussane(?) blended in).

The YY#1 started lovely, then quickly deteriorated, but I think I may not have had the best bottle. If you taste the YY#1, I'd love to hear your thoughts, as I really liked the way this started but am gunshy about buying any without trying again.

The YY#2 with a little age stunned me with the elegance it had picked up compared to the younger bottling tried the same night. Not exactly subtle and not my normal style, but a very enjoyable bit of juice.

I've got precious little other experience with Yarra Valley wines.

A few notes:

• 1996 Yarra Yering Dry Red #1 - Australia, Victoria, Yarra Valley (9/4/2005)
  Tasted with an assortment of cheeses after a cookout dinner at Bryan and Amy's. Young claret purple has softened to red except at the very center. Nose is completely closed at first, taking about ten or fifteen minutes to open up. Once open, the nose is a dead ringer for a St. Julien like Beychevelle or Ducru -- has that elegance masking weight that I associate with St. Julien, with classic cassis, cedar, graphite, a little herb, and a dose of sweet vanilla. On the palate, it is of middle weight with substantial but fairly well resolved tannins. Nice dry (if a little short) finish from the silky dark berry and deep cherry fruit. Perhaps a the high degree of ripeness on entry says Australia, but otherwise still seems like a good St. Julien from an average year. After another fifteen minutes or so, though, it all starts to come apart. Nose turns a little dusty, fruit a little muddy and disjointed and the oak steps up to dominate the finish. This could have been a result of mismatched cheeses or of a dumb phase, but troubles me enough that I wouldn't buy it without tasting again.
  
• 1995 Yarra Yering Dry Red #2 - Australia, Victoria, Yarra Valley (5/21/2005)
  Tokyo Offline for Dale and Betsy and Joe (Shunju): Bryan and Amy are our next door neighbors. After dinner we joined them for one more bottle, which turned out to be an older version of the syrah/marsanne/viognier blend. Man, was I wrong about the aging potential for this wine. Take all of the components described above, tone the volume and ripeness down a touch, add a little more apparent structure, and you get a wine that seems to be much closer to Cote-Rotie and shows more complexity and none of the distraction/confusion. Additional elements that come out include a little anise, some smoky meat, and a tiny bit of bitter chocolate. It’s still Australian, it’s still ripe, and the structure still hides a little behind the fruit, but this is serious syrah. This is still available in the market, but with very limited allocation. I’m going hunting!
  
• 2001 Yarra Yering Dry Red #2 - Australia, Victoria, Yarra Valley (5/21/2005)
  Tokyo Offline for Dale and Betsy and Joe (Shunju): This was the other contribution from Bryan and Amy and got no decanting or air time. Produced in the (relatively) cool climate of the Yarra Valley, this wine is predominantly Syrah, but is leavened with a small dose of viognier and marsanne. This particular blending trend seems to be a nod to Cote-Rotie that is gaining popularity both in Australia and in the southwest of France. Previously (in other wines) I’ve found it interesting, but a little too obvious, with the viognier aromatics overwhelming the rest of the nose. On pouring, the wine was still extremely primary in both color and nose, with an aggressive orange flower and honeysuckle character doing its job of overwhelming. Unlike other examples of the blend, however, I found that the nose settled down over time and a little warm leather, treacle, and ripe berry came through. Based on the nose, I was expecting syrupy fruit on the palate, but that was not to be. While clearly ripe and extracted and carrying a little oaky sweetness, the fruit showed enough acid vibrancy to do an okay job with bamboo shoot kamameshi. This is clearly Australian, but it is made with a restrained hand and shows the best of the New World without going overboard. Someone asked whether this would age well and Dale and I each commented that it would hold fine, but it probably wouldn’t develop too much…why hold it when it is so delicious to drink now? Well, we were wrong (see below), but I still enjoyed drinking it young, though I’d probably rather sip it alone than have it with food at this age. My wife’s WOTN.
  

Posted from CellarTracker

[orangeblossom]

Thanks for your recommendations and notes. Yarra Yering and de Bortoli were 2 wineries on my list Will try to report back after my trip, but given my very limited experience with wine, I'm not sure if my very-likely-to-be-amateurish-notes would be of any interest to you!

Thanks again.

[BrentKulman]

Hi. 1st time on this thread  

I'll be visiting the Yarra Valley in Melbourne next week and I would like some recommendations on good wineries/wines to look out for when i'm there. I'm much more of a food person, and don't really know about wines so I'd be grateful for some recommendations.

Thanks!

←

It's been almost 20 years since I lived in Melbourne and used to visit the Yarra Valley wineries from time to time. Two of my favorites at that time were St. Hubert's and Mount Mary. I have no idea whether they are still around or open to visitors - I seem to recall at the time that Mount Mary was not.

[jrufusj]

I am sure your impressions will be helpful. Tasting notes don't need to have lots of obscure adjectives and tasters don't need to have lots of experience. I'd be very interested in your impressions...however you wish to express them.

I would second the Mount Mary recommendation if they are open for visiting. I'd forgotten about that one.

Jim

[orangeblossom]

thanks Brent, Jim. Will keep an eye out for them.

[ludja]

A friend visited some wineries in Yarra Vallely and brought back a very nice shirza from Tokar Estate (2001 Yarra Valley Shiraz).

Here's a link to their website.

You may have run across it , but here is another link to some general info on Yarra Valley vineyards: click

Have a great time. It would be great to hear back on this thread which wineries you went to and what your impressions were.

[orangeblossom]

A friend visited some wineries in Yarra Vallely and brought back a very nice shirza from Tokar Estate (2001 Yarra Valley Shiraz).

Here's a link to their website.

You may have run across it , but here is another link to some general info on Yarra Valley vineyards: click

Have a great time.  It would be great to hear back on this thread which wineries you went to and what your impressions were.

←

Thanks, am definitely looking forward to my trip

[SYoung]

I visited Yarra Valley earlier this year and besides those already mentioned above, other can't miss are:

Yering Station - Shiraz Viognier good QPR and their winery is very scenic. It's better than their Reserve IMO.

Domaine Chandon - Even though they're known mostly for their sparkling wines and roses, their Green Point shiraz is excellent and has been rated at least 90 by WS for a couple of years in a row.

Oakridge - their pinot and cab sav are great!

Coldstream Hills - Good pinot. Originally founded by James Halliday who's the Robert Parker of Australia. It's located in the middle of nowhere as you have to travel a long dirt road just to get there. They didn't let us taste the Reserve Pinot but offered to sell it to us for something like $72 and later I found the same at Dan Murphy's bottle shop for $20 less!

[orangeblossom]

I visited Yarra Valley earlier this year and besides those already mentioned above, other can't miss are:

Yering Station - Shiraz Viognier good QPR and their winery is very scenic.  It's better than their Reserve IMO.

Domaine Chandon - Even though they're known mostly for their sparkling wines and roses, their Green Point shiraz is excellent and has been rated at least 90 by WS for a couple of years in a row.

Oakridge - their pinot and cab sav are great!

Coldstream Hills - Good pinot.  Originally founded by James Halliday who's the Robert Parker of Australia.  It's located in the middle of nowhere as you have to travel a long dirt road just to get there.  They didn't let us taste the Reserve Pinot but offered to sell it to us for something like $72 and later I found the same at Dan Murphy's bottle shop for $20 less!

←

Thanks - everything sounds inviting.

I'm leaving tonite and can't wait to try everyone's recommendations!