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Yarra Valley fights back

Winsor Dobbin

Vineyard views of the Yarra Valley in Victoria [©Visions of Victoria]

In February of this year, the Yarra Valley was an inferno. An estimated 80 hectares of vines were destroyed by the tragic bushfires that swept through Steels Creek, Dixons Creek, Yarra Glen, Coldstream, Healesville and beyond – all prime vineyard areas.

The Roundstone winery was burnt to the ground while Punt Road lost a machinery shed, Domaine Chandon suffered damage to two warehouses and the boutique Immerse winery also lost several buildings. Sticks, Mandala, Yarra Yarra and St Huberts were others hard hit.

Not only did the fires – and some associated smoke taint – ruin much of the fruit waiting to be harvested for the 2009 vintage, the apocalyptic images seen around the country impacted on the region’s tourism with potential guests staying away in their droves.  One of the Yarra’s biggest showpieces, the Grape Grazing Festival, had to be rescheduled.

Now the region is bouncing back – and wants us to know it. Recent rains have left the Yarra – home to some of Australia’s best chardonnay, pinot noir and sparkling wine – looking green and delegates at last week’s Yarra Valley Wine Program; sommeliers, wine retailers and media, were assured the future is looking bright – even though the weather has again been unkind.

“We’ve certainly had our challenges,” said Steve Webber, chief winemaker at De Bortoli Yarra Valley. “There’s been an early budburst this year which means frost is a possible problem, and despite the recent rain there is still an overall lack of water.

“The drought has been a huge issue but the region has instigated sustainable farming practices to utilise less water and in the long term that’s a positive. There’s nothing new about dryland farming – we can do things well without a lot of water.”

Webber is brutally frank about what consumers can expect from the 09 vintage. “We’ve got some ordinary wines and some very interesting wines,” he said. “Good producers will only release good quality wine and if they aren’t happy they won’t release anything.”

The implicit message being that buyers should purchase 09 Yarra Valley releases from producers they trust.

David Bicknell, the chief winemaker at Oakridge winery, said wine drinkers should appreciate that many Yarra Valley producers are boutique producers, or artisans competing against major corporations, as he put it.

“The big thing is we are moving away from winemaking being a mechanical process to being a philosophical process,” Bicknell said. “We are all trying to apply techniques that are sympathetic to the region.

“A lot of what winemakers are taught is how to make wines that all taste the same – and customers are bored with that and as a region we’d like to align ourselves with craft production rather than industrial production. Being different.

“We’d hope that as people realise what we are doing here they’ll stop buying imported wine and get behind a region that’s taken a belting.”

The Yarra producers were at pains to point out that while they are best known for Burgundian varieties, the region also produces cabernets and blends, aromatic varieties including sauvignon blanc and pinot gris, and syrah, which is often so-labelled to distinguish it from the big, alcoholic shirazes coming from South Australia.

“There is a wide diversity in flavours that this region can produce,” said Webber. “The rainfall can vary from 25 inches of rain in some areas to 75 inches in others. The valley floor has clay loam soils high in minerals, while the Upper Yarra has basalt-based red soils.

“As a region we aim to make wines that taste more of the soil than the sun – we want our wines to taste of the place they come from.”

Thus varieties like pinot noir continue to shine.

“We don’t do muscle or fatness in our Yarra pinots,” said Giant Steps winemaker Steve Flamsteed. “What we do beautifully is perfume – and that’s the essence of the Yarra.”

Among the wines to impress me during the program were a stunning 2008 Fume Blanc from Oakridge, a rich but elegant 2006 Yering Station Cabernet Sauvignon, an exciting 2004 Blanc de Blancs from Yarra Burn and a 2006 Toolangi Reserve Syrah. Well-rounded chardonnays from 2006 and 2007 outshone the 08s for me with Yering Station’s ultra-lean Willow Lake 07 and Domaine Chandon’s 07 most impressive.

Also noteworthy were the number of fine wines from tiny producers like Bulong Estate, Gembrook Hill and Jamsheed.

Last week, restaurants like Locale at De Bortoli, Yering Station’s Wine Bar and Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander were buzzing, resorts like the Mercure Balgownie Estate were reporting solid bookings and cellar doors were reporting sales close to pre-fire levels. The signs looked good.

“The Yarra is a very special place,” Webber told delegates. “It is beautiful, cultured and sophisticated – it’s a grown-up place and the wine styles it produces are also very grown-up – we have wines of elegance, subtlety and perfume, reds that are medium-bodied and delicious; and we want people to come back and taste them.”

Regions

• Yarra Valley (Wine) (VIC)

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