Winemaker Notes
Mac and his team choose not to include tasting notes on their website, the wines hopefully capture vineyard life and vitality. As such the wines are constantly evolving. The only tasting notes that matter are yours.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This cherry-hued Pinot from the relatively warm Coldstream subregion in the lower Yarra offers cherry aromas, too, backed by savory, earthy tones, touches of florals and some tar-like mineral notes. There’s just a touch of volatility, too, adding balsamic notes and a general lift to the wine. In the mouth, it’s light, juicy, savory and mineral, the silky texture and soft, granular tannins sliced by crystalline acidity. A stripped-back wine that avoids any semblance of funk.
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James Suckling
Dried rose petals, fresh red plums, strawberry essence and a touch of savory elements. Medium to full body, fine tannins, fresh acidity and an asphalt finish. Really delicious.
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.