Elegant Cool-Climate Wines from Australia's Yarra Valley
The first stop on my wine tour across Victoria was the Yarra Valley, located just an hour outside of Melbourne. The Yarra is a picturesque region where the suburban outskirts of the city give way to rolling green hills dotted with sheep and cattle. Creeks and rivers meander across the landscape, collared by eucalyptus and underbrush. The landscape features a blend of rural communities and opulent country estates with the occasional quaint, main-street towns that serve as centers for the winemaking communities.
The Yarra is Australia’s Burgundy. Many of Australia’s best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay is made here. But what I find most captivating are the alternative varieties of the region: spicy cool-climate Syrah, exceptionally balanced Bordeaux blends, and intensely aromatic Nebbiolos. The wide variety of topography and a vast number of microclimates allow the production of many different varieties at an extremely high quality across the board. Yet, despite the wide diversity, there is one thing every winemaker I spoke to agrees upon: The wines of the Yarra Valley are universally crafted to express their terroir.
There was no better case than the tasting at Punt Road my first day in Yarra, where a number of young, intrepid winemakers came together for a seminar on wines of the Yarra. Of those, Luke Lambert made the biggest impact. Luke is a somewhat quiet and introspective personality. When he answers questions about his vineyards and winemaking, he takes long pauses, contemplating the answer a few times to ensure its accuracy before putting together his explanation. He sources his wines from the deep north of the Yarra Valley, carefully choosing sites with elevation and low-vigor, rocky soils.
He makes three wines: an icy Chardonnay (2020 Luke Lambert Chardonnay Yarra Valley $59.99 95VN); a wild, structured Syrah (2021 Luke Lambert Syrah Yarra Valley $59.99); and a pristinely beautiful Nebbiolo. And what I love about his wines is that, although they clearly have Old-World sources of inspiration, Luke isn’t creating facsimiles of other styles. His Syrah doesn’t taste like Côte-Rôtie, nor does his Nebbiolo like Barolo. But what astounded me is that the quality was absolutely on par with some of the best producers of these varieties found anywhere. The structure, the interplay of fruit and minerality, the complexity and density of detail are all present, but with the end result of a wine that is unique to the Yarra and nowhere else. These were some of the most striking wines I stumbled across throughout my adventure in Australia.
But Luke isn’t an isolated case. One of my best experiences in Yarra was a visit with the indomitable Ben Portet. For the past 15 years, Ben has been the winemaker at Dominique Portet Yarra Valley, the winery his father founded in 2000. Ben is something of wine industry royalty. His grandfather was the manager of Château Lafite-Rothschild in Bordeaux, his uncle the founder of Clos du Val in Napa, and his father Dominique was one of the original “flying winemakers,” a term for French winemakers who consult with wineries across the globe.
Ben is a force of nature. He talks at a thousand miles an hour and is thrilled to show you every little detail of their vineyards and production facility. What I love about his wines is that, in a region dominated by Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, Ben is crafting stone-cold Cabernet and Bordeaux blends in exactly the same way you’d find them produced in Bordeaux.
The wines at Portet certainly fit the mold for Yarra Valley Cabernet (2020 Dominique Portet "Fontaine" Cabernet Sauvignon Yarra Valley Victoria $19.99): lean and structured, with a backbone of cassis and forest floor punctuated by aromatic intensity. Yet, its dollop of new French oak and rigid vertical tannin line certainly gives it a clear Bordelais sensibility. Additionally, they release a creamy and decadent rosé of Bordeaux varieties (2021 Dominique Portet "Fontaine" Rose Yarra Valley Victoria $14.99) that is exceptionally well executed at its price. All in all, I was incredibly impressed by the quality, balance, and unique perspective of this exceptional producer.
Finally, maybe the best afternoon I spent in Yarra was with the fabulous Sarah Crowe. Sarah is winemaker for Yarra Yering, one of the most interesting footnotes in Australian wine. Within Australia itself, Yarra Yering’s Dry Red No.1 has consistently been cited as one of the country’s signature wines, with universal acclaim. But here in the United States, there is essentially no recognition of it whatsoever. Much of that has to do with Yarra Yering hedging their bets on the American market—they got burned by a bad importer years ago and now only import a miniscule amount of wine to the U.S. The 2017 Yarra Yering "Dry Red No.1" Bordeaux Blend Yarra Valley $99.99 98JH 97JS 97WA 94VN, like all of Yarra Yering wines, is a cool-climate Bordeaux blend. Structured and intense with piercing aromatics this is the antithesis to the hyperbolized, rich style of Cabernet often found in Napa. Fans of Ridge’s Montebello should especially take note—there are many similarities in composition, but with a dramatically subdued presence of oak. Despite its touchstones, Yarra Yering is a classic Australian Bordeaux blend of the highest quality that merits more attention among wine drinkers in the U.S.—I can’t recommend this bottle of wine enough.
There were certainly more experiences and wines to share from this trip to the Yarra, but keep on the lookout for more posts in the future—including an incredible visit to Oakridge. After spending three days in the valley, it has never been clearer that Yarra is one of the world’s wine regions that is already showing incredible promise, despite its relative infancy. I can’t wait to source and share more of the wines from this incredible region.