Victoria: Cutting Edge Meets Classic

BY ANGUS HUGHSON | MARCH 07, 2024

Bastard Hill is not a vineyard name that rolls off the tongue easily. It instantly evokes images of hardship and toil—of back-breakingly steep slopes. It’s also a far cry from the classic Australian landscape, with much of the continent flattened by 3.8 billion years of erosion. But that is exactly what you find after snaking through tall timber forests that wind up to one of the highest vineyards in the Yarra Valley. The volcanic loam soils betray the area’s geological history, while the angled hillsides are also a godsend, helping fruit in the higher-elevation vineyards to achieve full ripeness. This is just one of a myriad of viticultural environments on offer in the southeast Victorian regions of Yarra Valley and Gippsland.

While bordering one another, the Yarra and Gippsland are also, in some ways, diametrically opposed. The inland Yarra Valley, located among the higher reaches of the Yarra River, which passes through Melbourne before entering Port Phillip Bay, is almost aristocratic, with nearly 200 years of winemaking history and a significant back catalog of long-lived wines. There are impressive cellar doors and fine dining options to match. The coastal Gippsland region is wilder and more rustic, an uncut diamond with flashes of brilliance and growing momentum. Between them, they showcase the cool climate of the southeastern corner of Australia generated by the nearby Southern Ocean.

Fog rising at Yarra Yering.

Twists and Turns in Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley was Victoria’s first wine region, with vineyards planted soon after settlement at Yering Station in the first half of the nineteenth century. Phylloxera and economic hardship saw the last of these original vineyards pulled out in the 1930s. The first new shoots emerged in the 1960s, thanks to the establishment of Wantirna Estate, Yarra Yering and Mount Mary. Their proprietors—Reg and Bertina Egan, Bailey Carrodus and John and Marli Middleton—were students of the classics, with each having a slightly different take, although all were enamored by the wines of Bordeaux. Before Shiraz stamped its authority across the country, Cabernet Sauvignon, from these three trailblazers, became highly desirable and set the region’s early course. The Yarra, cooler than Bordeaux but warmer than Burgundy, became a home for elegant, midweight, finely balanced Cabernet Sauvignon blends, with refinement and aromatic detail the local hallmarks. These three pioneering wineries remain regional standard-bearers after more than 50 years.

However, in the late 1980s, the Yarra dramatically changed track and helped to kickstart a national move into cooler viticultural zones. While Cabernet Sauvignon had been the Yarra’s leading light and still should be in some parts, Melbourne’s vibrant food scene, with encouragement from a strong sommelier community and general wine culture, helped build what has become a revolution. The setting-up of the Coldstream Hills winery in 1985 by one of the country’s leading wine communicators, Burgundy fanatic James Halliday, no doubt gave plenty of others the confidence to follow his lead, as did Chandon, the local outpost of Moët & Chandon­, which was established in 1986. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay plantings exploded, with 50 new wineries emerging over the next two decades, as did interest in cooler, upper Yarra sites, with some vineyards planted at up to 400 meters in elevation. Today, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay make up almost 70% of plantings, with 2,500 hectares under vine. Unsurprisingly, over time, Yarra Valley also attracted some significant international players; Dominique Portet (with family connections to Château Lafite-Rothschild and Clos du Val) arrived in 2000, while California’s Jackson Family added local trailblazing winery Giant Steps to their Australian stable in 2020.

Yet the Yarra experienced more than simply a broadening of plantings and exploration of viticultural landscapes. The region also grew into a hive of creativity and was really the first in the country to truly embrace cool-climate winemaking at a broad scale, helping to evolve the national narrative. Aspiring vignerons scoured maps for cooler sites with advantageous solar exposure while leading winemakers tinkered with well-established winemaking techniques to help showcase the quality of local fruit in the best possible way.

That ethos remains to this day, the Yarra sitting on the cutting edge of the modern Australian style. Walk into any cellar, and it is not unusual to find wines that push the traditional local boundaries, including whole-bunch Cabernet Sauvignon, skin-contact wines made in amphora and more traditional styles crafted from Portuguese varieties. Newer grapes for the region, such as Gamay, Savagnin, Nebbiolo, Tempranillo and Sangiovese, are also increasingly found among classic Bordelais and Burgundian options. Experimentation has become a part of the regional DNA, while Yarra Valley has also retained a classical base of predominantly Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. The Yarra has something for everyone. Even Nebbiolo, that difficult Italian mistress, can flourish. Luke Lambert’s 2022 vintage is utterly brilliant and reminiscent of Cru Barbaresco.

Part of that exploratory spirit is driven by the sheer variety of terroirs on offer. Elevations alone range from 30 to 400 meters, with every conceivable aspect. Some vineyards sit overlooking broad, open country, while others are tucked away in valley corners. The Upper Yarra paradoxically sits to the southeast, where the river emerges from the Yarra ranges. Here, in sub-regions such as Hoddles Creek and Gladysdale, younger red volcanic soils are common, while the lower Yarra is more characterized by older, sandy clay loams.