The Yarra Valley

Funny thing, but when Melburnians think of going on a winery crawl, most still start packing their bags for Adelaide. Great for the Barossa, McLaren Vale and the South Australian economy at large, but something of a mystery to people like me who can’t get into places like the Yarra Valley often enough.

It wasn’t always the case, but today the Yarra is one of the most visitable of Australian wine regions. You can easily get there and back in a single day and still have plenty of time to look around. It’s a stately hour and a half from central Melbourne, after which the city’s streets of shops and cafes have been entirely replaced by neatly ordered rows of chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon.

‘A small river emerges out of a wooded range into a rich flat, which, bounded by a blue horizon of distant mountains, spreads like an open fan between green hills dotted with farms, houses and churches.’ So wrote Hubert de Castella, founder of St Huberts, back in 1886. Certainly things have changed, but the flavour remains essentially the same. Wait on a hill near a springtime dawn to watch the Yarra River’s thick early morning mist rise to meet the blue sky above and you’ll witness a captivating phenomenon of rare beauty well worth a photo or two. The Yarra’s light, colours and contrasts alter dramatically from season to season and indeed throughout a single day.

Today the Yarra’s traditional tranquillity, which has only been enhanced by the tapestry-like spread of its vineyards, is punctuated by an increasing number of modern winery structures, some large and imposing, most small and self-contained.

Ten years ago it was difficult to find a decent meal in the Valley itself, while accommodation of any style, should the trip back to Melbourne present one single challenge too many, was nigh on impossible to arrange. Today, however, the Yarra Valley is perfectly set up for the wine tourist or traveller, with a full bandwidth of hospitality at the visitor’s beck and call. Most of the best restaurants are found at or amongst the vineyards themselves, so there’s no longer any need to duck back to Lilydale to top up on solids during a day’s slurping and gargling at the cellar doors.

While some vineyards attempt to make the fruit salad of wines traditionally necessary to please and detain the thirsty visitor for as long as possible, most Yarra makers are specialists in no more than a handful of grape varieties. It’s a large and diverse geographical area whose vineyards are found on a range of soil types, aspects and altitudes, but there are very few Yarra vineyards unsuited to growing the early-ripening grapes of chardonnay and pinot noir, the wines the Valley typically does best.

Cabernet sauvignon, merlot and other later-ripening red Bordeaux varieties are represented in many vineyards, but only ripen consistently on warmer sites like those typically found near Dixon’s Creek, Gruyere and Coldstream. Shiraz shows huge potential, making a range of styles between the richer, plumper wines of Dixon’s Creek and more peppery, spicy expressions from cooler sites near Seville. While some semillon, sauvignon blanc and riesling are indeed found in the Yarra, it’s unlikely that these grapes will ever shake chardonnay from its perch as the region’s most important white variety.

Yarra chardonnay presents bright and mouthfilling melon and stonefruit flavours made in a wide diversity of styles between the tight, minerally Yeringberg and the plump and juicy Tarrawarra. Most makers opt for the full range of traditional Burgundian winemaking techniques, although some makers like Mount Mary, Seville Estate and Shantell have typically used only a small or negligible degree of malolactic fermentation. The best wines of Coldstream Hills, Seville Estate, Tarrawarra, Yeringberg, De Bortoli and St Huberts are capable of dveloping for several years, during which they acquire complex nutty, savoury and toasty characters.

With a collection of pinot noir specialists which includes Diamond Valley, Mount Mary, Yeringberg, Coldstream Hills, Tarrawarra, Yarra Yering, Yarra Ridge and De Bortoli, the Yarra Valley can claim to make more of Australia’s leading pinot noir than any other region. The best wines can embody the fineness of structure, yet the heady opulence of flavour sought after in top-notch pinot noir, with a typically concentrated spectrum of dark cherries, plums and strawberries.

And as Domaine Chandon and Yarrabank consistently prove, Yarra chardonnay and pinot noir are both amply suited to making some of Australia’s finest sparkling wines.

While it’s only possible to visit a number of the best Yarra wineries only by appointment, there’s more than enough open consistently throughout the year to make for thoroughly worthwhile wine touring. If you’re interested in a wide spectrum of different varieties, styles and vintages, Coldstream Hills offers perhaps the most comprehensive range for tasting and exploration, plus a view across the valley you’d like to bottle and take with you. Its collection of chardonnays, cabernet sauvignons and pinot noirs, culminating in the Reserve wines from each variety, have recently been joined by a couple of excellent merlots which perhaps point towards a new way ahead for the Yarra’s Bordeaux-styled reds.

Nearby at Domaine Chandon’s Green Point Room it’s possible to sit down and be served the country’s best range of sparkling wines while looking over gardens, vineyards and into yet more hazy blue hills. This is a room in which one could readily settle for an entire day, while appreciating the sheer magnificence of what man and nature have combined to achieve, both visually and organoleptically.

Yering Station’s cellar door outlet is found in its historic and recently restored cellar which once formed part of the Valley’s first winery. Its sprawling, edifice-like modern winery houses a superb wine bar-restaurant, modern cellars and winemaking areas, plus expansive indoor and outdoor entertainment spaces, all opposite still another remarkable view. Under young winemaker Tom Carson, Yering Station is now fulfilling its potential with some excellent chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz, even though its reputation was founded last century on cabernet sauvignon.

Adjacent to Yering Station, but under separate ownership and management, is the splendidly refurbished and extended Chateau Yering, a truly genuine five-star boutique hotel equipped with first-class restaurant and bistro facilities. Yes, it’s expensive, but yes, it’s also excellent value. The original buildings, which feature a spacious lounge whose concave ceiling is wonderfully decorated, helped comprise the original house established on the property by Paul de Castella. In 1849 he had purchased William Ryrie’s property of Yering Station, which incorporated the Yarra’s first vineyard, planted by Ryrie in 1838.

One of the first Yarra restaurants, which today remains amongst its best and busiest, is that of De Bortoli, another reasonably long-term Yarra Valley occupant whose wines are also now hitting their straps. De Bortoli’s diverse spread of vineyard sites enables it to fashion excellent cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, pinot noir and shiraz, while its special Melba Barrel Select and Reserve Shiraz reds are only rarely found but worth the effort taken to discover them. It’s possible to taste several different ranges of wine at De Bortoli, including the fresh, zesty wines bottled under its other Yarra Valley label of Gulf Station.

Other wineries with restaurants include Bianchet, whose casual bistro has an excellent reputation; the remarkable development at Eyton on Yarra which supports an extensive entertainment programme; BRL Hardy’s Yarra Burn, found in a rustic bluestone hall and Fergusson’s, a long-time favourite amongst visitors to the Yarra for its friendliness and regional cuisine. Yarra Valley Hills is home to the Italian ristorante of La Fontana, while Lillydale Vineyards opened its restaurant in 1997. Please login to post comment