by Huon Hooke

Sydney Morning Herald "Good Living"

Nov 13 2007

A former banker who chose the Yarra Valley to make premium wines has made a highly impressive debut.

Suiting the grape variety to the vineyard site is nothing new. The French have done it for centuries. Closer to home, Petaluma was founded on this principle. The French place great emphasis on soil and land factors in their choice of site but it’s fair to say New World countries place the greater importance on meso-climate.

The French go to great lengths to suit not only grape variety but root stock to soil, changing planting material from one small patch of dirt to the adjacent small patch a stone’s throw away. But our winegrowers tend to refine things once the vines are established. They might have chosen Clare for riesling in the macro sense but, within their piece of land, experience will lead them with time to planting sections that are frost-free, elevated, sheltered from wind, on cooler south-facing slopes and on soils that have a good balance between water retention and water genetration and drainage properties. Identifying blocks of vines to produce wines that magically taste better than others only comes with a great deal of experience.

YarraLoch is one of the most impressive start-up wine producers to cross my path in recent years. Owner Stephen Wood earned his pile at Macquarie Bank and decided to invest it in wine. He looked at the Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley and decided on the Yarra, because it had more potential to grow a wider range of wines - cabernet, merlot and shiraz are much more difficult in Mornington. Why not plant in both regions? Too far apart, wasting too much time travelling between them, Wood replies.

In the Yarra he identified three sub-regions that suited the wines he wanted to make. The coldest is Whittlesea, where he grows chardonnay, merlot and shiraz, in the hope it will give him the peppery Northern Rhone-style fruit. The hottest is Kangaroo Ground, between Eltham and Tullamarine, and here he grows mostly cabernet sauvignon and some shiraz. Between the two, climatically, is Coldstream, where YarraLoch has 4.5 hectares of pinot noir on a steep, north-facing slope. This year he added a couple of hectares of chardonnay.

“Australian vineyards typically grow all their grape varieties on the same site,” Wood says. “They might do one or two good wines but the rest are ordinary. You need to suit the variety to the site.”

I’ve been mightily impressed with YarraLoch wines, especially the ‘05 shiraz viogniers. The regular wine (all Kangaroo Ground fruit) is rich and fleshy but not so spicy; the premium label Stephanie’s Dream (all Whittlesea grapes) is more elegant and peppery-spicy: fine, tight and long. The Heathcote shiraz is the biggest and most solid but, by Heathcote standards, it is still at the elegant end of the spectrum.

The most surprising wines are YarraLoch’s two ‘05 merlots. I’m a merlot sceptic but these are the goods. Neither shows any green elements. Stephanie’s Dream (with a little cabernet in it) is fully ripe and robust with blackberry flavour, deep colour and lush fruit. But Morpheus, a selection of the best three barrels (and 100 per cent merlot), is a stunner: sumptuous, powerful, rich and very ripe-tasting—but only 14 per cent alcohol. It is one of the most impressive Australian merlots I’ve tasted and will be released next year at between $80 and $100.

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by Sally Gudgeon and Ralph Kyte-Powell

Sunday Life "Uncorked"

Nov 18 2007

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