What’s New In The Yarra

By Alex Russell on October 25, 2012 in Food

Like many people around the world, I’ve been getting into Twitter a bit lately. There are a lot of folks in the wine and restaurant trade on there, including journalists, winemakers, sommeliers, restaurant owners and small wine bar owners. It’s a great place to keep your finger on the pulse and find out what’s new and interesting.

And when you see a whole bunch of people talking about a particular wine or winery, you know there’s a pretty good reason for it. Two of the latest interesting wineries that I’ve found are from the Yarra: The Wanderer and Thousand Candles.

The Wanderer

I was chatting to Alex Head (see last month’s article) about good Pinot Noir and told him how much I like the really funky, feral styles of Pinot. He (and a few others) suggested that I try the wines by Andrew Marks, under the label ‘The Wanderer’.
If you look at Andrew’s website (www.wandererwines.com), you’ll see a few interesting drops. He makes two Pinots, a Shiraz, a Chenin Blanc, a Rosé and a Carinyena (made in Spain from very old vines). The Shiraz and the regular Yarra Valley Pinot (both $35) are very good wines in their own right, but it’s the others that really intrigued me.

The Upper Yarra Valley Pinot ($55ish) was the first one that I tried and it blew me away. It’s very light in colour so you kind of expect something light and elegant in the mouth, but when you smell and taste it you find a whole bunch of body and flavour. It’s made in a very natural way (he says that it’s tasted frequently but touched rarely) and is a very special wine. If you think you’ve seen all that the Yarra has to offer, try this. It’s one of those drops that I’m trying with a lot of wine-loving friends to show them something different.

The Chenin Blanc is sourced from what may be the only Chenin vines planted in the Yarra, so it’s unique too. The thing about Chenin Blanc is that not many people know what to expect, but the tasting notes describe it well when they mention texture and funk. For $25, it’s awesome value. There isn’t a lot of Chenin Blanc in Australia and I really don’t know why when it looks like this.

I haven’t tried the Carinyena yet ($50). I want to give it a bit more time in the bottle, but I’m expecting it to be something special as well.

This is definitely a label to watch.

Thousand Candles

The winemaker behind this is William Downie, who has been making a name for himself with some exceptional Pinots. As the Gourmet Traveller Young Winemaker of the Year in 2006, he’s garnered a lot of interest.

The beautiful but rundown Thousand Candles vineyard was purchased with overseas funding. Then an intriguing website popped up that got everyone excited. It showcased the biodynamic principle behind the vineyard restoration and spelled out the philosophy behind the label.

The only wine I’ve seen so far is the 2011 blend, which is an unusual blend of 92% Shiraz, 6% Pinot and 2% barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc. It’s not cheap ($100ish) and you can only order an allocation of up to six bottles through the website, but it’s something really different and exciting. Dave Brookes (the dux of the recent Len Evans course) says the wine “constantly morphs in the glass”. This is what I’ll be drinking on my birthday this year.

It’s great to see someone doing something really different and getting great results out of it. The first wine certainly isn’t cheap, but I have no doubt that there will be a lot of very interesting wines coming out of here.