Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine & Spirits
Lively and fresh, this wine takes time to grow gentle with air. It has the silken grace of a Pommard, its tannins edged in the green spice of stems. The texture has the broadness of pinot noir grown in clay soils (this vineyard is dark red clay, at 1,040 feet in the Upper Yarra); there’s a prickle of stemmy acidity to drive the wine through a clean, fragrant finish.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Pale ruby colored with a slight purple tinge, the 2012 Gladysdale Vineyard Pinot Noir presents aromas of red currants, cranberries and Provencal herbs with hints of tree bark and fungi. Light-bodied, crisp and replete with lively red fruit and herbal flavors in the mouth, it has a soft grip of tannins and a long, earthy finish. Drink it now to 2018+.
Rating: 90+
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.