Yabby Lake Pinot Noir 2010
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2007-
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Spectator
The first chapter of this exciting Australian wine story started in 1992 when the Kirby family planted its first vineyard at Red Hill on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. Intimately involved in the Mornington Peninsula region for decades, it was only natural that founders Robert and Mem Kirby would plant their first vines in the area.
In 1998, after much searching and careful planning, the Yabby Lake Vineyard was established in the sub-region of Moorooduc.
One year later, a rare and special parcel of land on the ancient Cambrian soils of Heathcote was planted with the sole objective to grow and craft one wine - a single vineyard shiraz.
Around the same time, the family also purchased the original Mount Helen Vineyard in the Strathbogie Ranges.
The Kirby family began working with viticulturist Keith Harris and soon engaged Larry McKenna to oversee the early vintages. Renowned Mornington Peninsula winemaker Tod Dexter was employed in 2004, applying his specialist knowledge of the region.
In 2008, after a decade of careful planning of the family's wine interests, Robert and Mem handed control of the family's vineyards and established labels to their children Nina and Clark.
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.”
Extending into the sea from just south of the city of Melbourne to form Port Philip Bay in the southern state of Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula grape growing region naturally has a cool, maritime climate. A wide range of soils and topographic variations support a large diversity of wine styles within the small headland.