Helen & Joey Layla Pinot Noir 2017
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Wine
Spectator -
Wilfred
Wong -
James
Suckling
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The wine is drinking exquisitely now, and it will continue to improve with time in bottle for up to 7 years from vintage.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Supple and elegant, with polished, silky tannins forming the backdrop for a mix of dried rose petal, forest floor, wild strawberry and fresh cherry juice notes. Accents of matcha green tea and white pepper linger on the finish. Drink now through 2028.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
Medium garnet color; dried red fruit aroma, very good; medium bodied, richly textured on the palate; dry, medium acidity, well balanced; chalky flavors, ripe red fruit, chalk; medium finish. (Tasted: April 13, 2018, San Francisco, CA)
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James Suckling
Freshly picked cranberries, rose petals, caramelized orange peel and citrus. Medium body, fine tannins, a lovely serving of acidity and a tangy finish.
Other Vintages
2018-
James
Suckling -
Wilfred
Wong
Helen & Joey purchased an already established Yarra Valley Vineyard in 2010. Since then Helen, the female owner and operator, and her small team have worked tirelessly to farm the vines better to produce better fruit to make better wine. The results are paying off with estate wines showing remarkable Yarra Valley character. The cool growing conditions of the Yarra Valley produce wines with far more elegance, restraint and aromatics than normally associated with Australian wine.
Helen and Joey Estate is located in the Gruyere sub-district of the Yarra Valley, right at the base of the Warramate Ranges. Vineyards in this area are associated with classic cool climate varieties such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also has a strong track regard of producing elegant but long lived reds from varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon.
Jamie McGlade is the viticulturist tasked with improving the vineyard and does so by building the vitality and health of the soils and vines alike. The end objective is to achieve a quality of fruit that requires a minimum of intervention in the winery. Jamie has previously managed renowned Yarra Valley vineyards such as, Mount Mary and Yering Station.
Our senior winemaker is Meg Brodtmann MW. Meg was the first Australian born female to be admitted to the Institute of Masters of Wine. Her focus is on making truly delicious wines that express the elegance, restraint and perfumed character of the Yarra Valley.
Interventions and manipulations are kept to a minimum. Meg is one of the female winemakers that founded Yarra Valley Women of Wine.
Helen and Joey Estate is proudly family owned and operated.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
As the most important area of wine production in Victoria today, the Yarra Valley is most popular for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which account for over half of vineyard acreage. A gentle, rolling and rural region alongside the Margaret River, the Yarra Valley has a cool maritime climate with a lengthy growing season, perfect for these cool-climate varieties.
Two styles of Pinot Noir are possible here. The warmer Lower Yarra Valley with sandy, loam soils, produces plush and fruity Pinot Noir while the cooler, higher-elevation Upper Yarra Valley with soils of young red basalt, produces more angular and mineral-driven Pinot Noir.
Yarra Valley Chardonnay is among the best in Australia. To preserve the floral aromatics and fresh citrus flavors for which this area’s Chardonnay is so appreciated, time in barrel is restrained (though barrel fermentation is common). The best Yarra Valley Chardonnays display brilliant acidity, leesy characteristics, citrus, stone fruit and flavors of ginger and spice.
Shiraz and Cabernet find success in parts of this region as well.