De Bortoli Joins Yarra Valley Elite

The Griffith-based De Bortoli family first moved into Victoria’s Yarra Valley in 1987 when it purchased Chateau Yarrinya, a tiny vineyard and winery whose only real claims to fame were its enviable location and a shining Jimmy Watson Trophy hanging from its walls.

Eleven years, hundreds of acres of new vineyard and enough stainless steel to operate a small refinery later, it’s time to take De Bortoli very seriously as a quality player in this most promising of Australian wine regions. With a 1998 crush of around 2,300 tonnes, from contract purchases and 85 of its 131 ha in the Yarra Valley, it is not only one of the largest and most efficient and most productive of all Yarra producers, but it is now one of the finest. De Bortoli aims to increase its plantings in the region to 180 ha by 2003.

De Bortoli has engineered a smart tiered arrangement of brands from the Yarra label to the Gulf Station and Windy Peak labels, giving its winemaking team the flexibility to allocate fruit to its premium Yarra Valley label on the basis of variety and quality. Now it has also introduced a couple of deluxe red wines under the Melba and Reserve Shiraz labels.

That De Bortoli is now able to perform at a high level with several different varieties is a reflection of the diversity of slope and aspect on its large and at times steeply undulating site. Its key Yarra wines are today made from shiraz, pinot noir, chardonnay and the cabernet family. In a strange quirk of fate, just as its wines are really hitting their straps, the De Bortoli vineyard collected another Watson in 1997, with the yet to be released Reserve Shiraz 1996.

The duo behind De Bortoli’s emergence in the Yarra are the married and transplanted couple of company director Leanne De Bortoli and winemaker/manager Steve Webber. Leanne is a graduate of wine marketing from Roseworthy, while Steve cut his winemaking teeth with Lindemans. Steve hides his intensity and attention to detail under a laconic exterior, while Leanne juggles her role in the company’s growth with the immediate needs of two young daughters. Needless to say, Steve and Leanne are well supported. Phillip Lobley operates the 131 ha vineyard, while winemakers David Slingsby-Smith ex Penfolds and David Bicknell are as much involved in the evolution of its premium brands as they are with the company’s increasing production.

De Bortoli began to cement its place amongst the Yarra elite with its 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon, a wine that has taken its time to reveal its ultimate quality. Sophisticated and restrained, revealing a tight structure and brambly fruit, it’s a very model of refinement and balance in cool-climate cabernet. Strange also that De Bortoli should accomplish this wine in what is generally held to be a difficult year for Yarra cabernet, but that’s not an uncommon occurrence at Dixon’s Creek. The 1996 wine, from another cooler season, is typically fine-grained and supple, with leafy cassis and mulberry fruit supported by smoky cedar oak. Steve Webber keeps the best parcels of cabernet sauvignon for one to two weeks on skins after fermentation, before maturing the wine in 50 new French oak.

The top-drawer Melba label is a blend of the winery’s best Yarra ferments of cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, merlot and cabernet franc, although since 1996 the shiraz has been bottled separately under the Reserve Shiraz label. David Slingsby-Smith has introduced a Penfolds red winemaking technique whereby a barrel is placed under each red fermenter to collect the dense, dark fermenting wine which drops from the skins after draining. It may take twelve hours to fill a single barrel. The resulting wine is richly textured, firm and tight and is left for 30 months in French oak.

The 1993 Melba is currently available 500 cases released, while the 1994 vintage 600 cases will be released in October this year for around $55. The first wine was made in 1992 100 cases.

Webber’s team made a comparable step forward in 1996 with the Burgundian varieties of pinot noir and chardonnay. Both wines have developed remarkably in glass over the last six months and both are undeniably of gold medal standard, whatever the competition. Prior to its full fermentation in oak the chardonnay juice is given a non-enzyme juice treatment to leave a fraction of light solids, to create what Webber describes as a richer, softer texture. The latest 1997 vintage presents an attractive length and intensity of fresh peach, apple and melon fruit with spicy French oak in a bigger, fleshier wine.

The Pinot Noir is David Bicknell’s baby. It’s profoundly affected by smoky new oak, but not to the degree of a Coldstream Hills Reserve. Between 30-40 of the must is cold macerated at 8?C for a week prior to fermentation to help achieve its strong, stable colour. The last 2-2.5?Baume is finished in toasty oak, around 35 of which is new. Supple, soft and round, with excellent intensity of attractive ripe cherry pinot fruit, the current 1997 Pinot Noir is the best of De Bortoli’s current releases. Smoky mocha oak adds complexity, while the wine lingers long with a supple, fleshy palate and tight, fine-grained extract.

Until the 1992 vintage I found it difficult to understand De Bortoli’s shiraz, but since then the wines have shown the ripeness and structure to support their sweet spicy cassis/mulberry flavours. The company’s real intent with this variety is best expressed by the extraordinary 1997 Reserve Shiraz, still biding its time in oak and some years from release. This label is given the pick of De Bortoli’s 50 acres of Yarra shiraz and the inaugural 1996 vintage, tentatively scheduled for release in 1999, is the latest Watson winner.

All De Bortoli’s shiraz is barrel fermented after a spell in a rotary fermenter to pick up colour and a period of open fermentation a la pinot noir during which it receives up to 6 hand plunges each day. Webber matures his Reserve Shiraz in French and American oak for 20 months.

The newly released 1996 Yarra Valley Shiraz is ripe, sweet and powerful, yet surprisingly elegant. Big chocolate/mocha barrel ferment characters are married with focused sweet black and red berry fruits in a simply delicious long, smooth palate which finishes with superfine tannins. Please login to post comment