Yarra Valley Is Ushering in a New Era of Australian Winemaking

Harvest is in full swing when I arrive at Mount Mary, a small, single vineyard estate in the prestigious Yarra Valley in Victoria, a historic winemaking region in southeast Australia. Third-generation winemaker Sam Middleton peels away from his crew, who are busy maneuvering vats filled with grapes toward the crusher, and ushers me over to a bluff overlooking the vines to chat about the terroir. Gently rolling hills stretch out in what seems like every shade of green, broken up by areas of sunlight and shadow, and the neat rows of plantings are buffered by plenty of surrounding countryside. 

The landscape here is just as beautiful as the vineyards in Tuscany, Bordeaux or Napa, though a formidable 16-hour flight (which climbs to upwards of 21 hours if you’re coming from the East Coast) has proven a bit prohibitive for some North American visitors. But as the quality of wine produced in Victoria is increasingly lauded as some of the best in the world, the region has become impossible to ignore—especially for wine lovers. With a climate that Middleton remembers his grandfather identifying back in the ‘70s as “a little bit warmer than Burgundy and not quite as warm as Bordeaux,” there’s still an ongoing debate about what kinds of grapes, exactly, should define the area. The resulting face-off makes the trip even more rewarding for visitors. 

Though this relatively cool climate region of Australia has a history of grape-growing that dates back to before the 1870s, an economic downturn in the next half-century effectively wiped it off the broader winemaking map. Once-robust vineyards were ripped out by the 1920s, and the land was instead used for sheep farming and dairy production. Meanwhile, the characteristics of Victoria’s more prominent neighbor, the Barossa Valley in South Australia, clouded the typical international understanding of what Australian wine is—or more importantly, what it can be. 

Sarah Crowe, winemaker and general manager at Yarra Yering, one of the oldest, most acclaimed producers in the area, finds that stereotypes about bold, hearty wines from South Australia still reign supreme. “Yarra Valley in Victoria is a cool climate area, but when someone in North America thinks of Australian wine, they’re probably thinking of quite ripe, soft acid, juicy wines,” Crowe says. “Here, it’s a little more European. We’ve got brighter acidity, and these are fragrant, medium-weighted, elegant wines. When people try Yarra Yering, they say, ‘Oh, this is really nice—it’s not what I was expecting!’” 

But working at a disadvantage is a familiar position for winemakers in developing regions all over the New World. After all, it took a European verdict like the Judgment of Paris to really put Napa on the map back in the ‘70s. The Willamette Valley flourished quietly for years before any critics took Oregon seriously. Though there’s no singular moment of international acclaim for Victorian wine yet, lots of little moments keep adding up—and plenty of them have to do with Crowe’s winemaking. 

She took over as winemaker at Yarra Yering back in 2013, after spending some time in the Hunter Valley, a wine-growing region in New South Wales, just north of Sydney. By the time she came to this Yarra Valley icon, it already had a great reputation for the replantings carried out by founder Dr. Bailey Carrodus in 1969; under Crowe’s stewardship, it has catapulted onto the international stage with prize-winning blends and numerous vintages with sky-high scores. 

In person, she’s exceedingly humble, and—as most great winemakers will tell you—thinks caring for the vines and the fruit is of utmost concern, way beyond any personal technique. 

“I’m still quite involved with the viticulture side, because the more work we do there, the easier and more beautiful the wines are,” she says, noting the wines also become more “representative of the site.” After she won critic James Halliday’s coveted winemaker of the year in 2017, it quickly became clear the match-up between Crowe and the site was a winning combination. As Yarra Yering’s star continues to rise, so too does the rest of the valley. 

Over at Mount Mary, Middleton’s grandfather, Dr. John Middleton, began planting vines in the valley in the early 1970s, right around the time Yarra Yering was established. Dr. Middleton fell in love with Burgundy and Bordeaux wines midway through his life, and hoped to recreate what he’d experienced in France in his native Australia. “It wasn’t until the mid-1960s and early 1970s where the valley was again identified as a place to make age-worthy, subtle, restrained, elegant styles of wines that would match with food,” Middleton tells Observer. “And, we hoped, would match alongside the best wines in the world.”

Luckily for Middleton, his grandfather’s plantings were well researched. Part of a second wave of growers who sparked a revival in the valley, this tiny, family-owned-and-operated producer consistently receives national accolades for its wine. Both Yarra Yering and Mount Mary vary between blends that lean toward the Bordeaux style, with cabernet sauvignon blends that balance small percentages of varieties like merlot and petite verdot, as well as vintages of straight-ahead pinot noir and chardonnay, the darling grapes of cool growing regions. 

In my estimation, Middleton’s pinot noir was some of the best I’ve had anywhere in the world, but his heart will forever be with the Quintet, a cabernet sauvignon blend with merlot, cabernet franc, petite verdot and malbec softening the edges. Like Yarra Yering’s Dry Red No. 1 and Dry Red No. 3, which are synonymous with the brand’s high quality, Quintet was a near-perfect blend. And as the second wave continues to build, it’s worth noting that these producers are standing on the shoulders of giants. 

At the oldest vineyard in the valley, Yering Station, the impact of the early settlers in the Yarra Valley comes into focus. The brand’s chief winemaker, Brendan Hawker, and chief viticulturist, Rod Harrison, were just as busy bringing in grapes during my visit, but still took time during the rainy, warm afternoon to step away from the intensive process and show me around Victoria’s most iconic wine estate. As the first and oldest vineyard in the state, Yering Station houses its tasting room (more commonly called a “cellar door” in Australia) in one of the site’s ancient original buildings. They’ve also added significantly to the facilities, with a contemporary restaurant offering spectacular landscape views, and expansive, state-of-the-art winemaking equipment.  

Now owned by the Rathbone Wine Group, a family-run syndicate with a wine portfolio that spans several celebrated estates around Australia, the winery supplements its estate-grown fruit by sourcing grapes from all over the valley, including vineyards scattered around the subregions of Yarra Glen and Coldstream. The history of their particular site, which has grown substantially in size over the last few years, is part of the draw for visiting the estate today. 

“The first vineyard that was planted here in 1838 was from two Scottish drovers, the Ryrie brothers, who laid their claim to an enormous parcel of 40,000 acres,” Hawker explains. “They ran the vineyard, made a bit of wine, and when the then-governor of the state of Victoria came through, he saw the potential. He had some experience in Switzerland, and encouraged people from there to come and start a wine region here.” 

Swiss settlers came to the valley and were key in establishing the early wave that Yering Station was a part of. That initial wine industry did so well that production at the winery was upwards of 50,000 cases a year, and the label was actually the only wine from the southern hemisphere to win a grand prize at the Paris Exhibition in the 1860s. But even this pioneering producer suffered the same fate as other producers in the region, and all the historic vines were ripped out amid the economic depression that began in the final decades of the 19th century. 

Part of the original vineyards were replanted in the late 1980s. The reimagined vineyards in the valley brought new life to the area, and in 1996, the Rathbone family purchased the historic site, helping to shepherd it into a renowned producer of cool-climate pinot noir and chardonnay. At the same time, cabernet and shiraz remain a key part of the portfolio. 

“One of the unique things about the Yarra is we do fantastic chardonnay and pinot noir, but we also have our own incredibly delicious cabernet,” Hawker says. “To be able to do both ends of that spectrum in terms of varietals is great—and then we’ve got shiraz in the middle of it, as well.” As the premier grape in Australian wine, shiraz, more often called syrah in North America and Europe, can be a bit overbearing for some palates. To balance out the wine and add a touch of restraint and silkiness, the team at Yering Station mixes it with another Rhône grape. 

“We’ve always done a northern Rhône co-ferment with viognier,” Hawker says. “Shiraz in a cooler climate like Yarra is almost like a different variety. Rather than being ripe and jammy with a fruit profile, we see a lot of spice. In cool areas, it can lean toward white pepper, and our shiraz has a bit more warmth to it and a savory complexity.” That complexity was on full display in a 2013 reserve vintage poured during lunch to pair with a hearty lamb dish. The age of the wine mellowed out the bottle somewhat, but there was still plenty of heft to stand up to the meat. The co-ferment gave this bottle a lovely individuality, and it was one of the most memorable wines I drank during the visit.

Now 30 years in, the site is representative of the diversity, quality and scale that’s possible in Victoria. Yering Station’s vast portfolio reinforces just how suitable the area is for growing, with impressive pinot noir and chardonnay, their version of shiraz, and a separate line, Yarrabank, showcasing a series of traditional method sparkling wines. Interestingly enough, sparkling wine is another style that thrives in the Yarra Valley, so much so that Chandon, part of LVMH, opened an estate in the Yarra Valley back in 1986. Their co-sign and investment here reaffirms the valley’s potential as an eventual rival for old-world regions. 

In the lead-up to one of their latest releases, the Chandon Étoile No. 3, a multi-vintage of sparkling wine taken from over the last three decades, the brand is bolstering its commitment that Australian wine can stand alongside the best in the world. “[This wine] embodies a ceaseless quest for excellence, the collaboration of a global community of winemakers united by curiosity, craft, and the belief that Australia can stand proudly among the world’s finest sparkling wine regions,” the label reads. 

With enough diversity to support Burgundy varietals, Bordeaux blends, Australia’s own juicy shiraz, and even sparkling wine, the Yarra Valley is a powerful player in the future of wine in Oceania. Whether it has the staying power to become one of the world’s best wine regions remains to be seen, but for travelers interested in where the wine industry is headed, the answer just might lie in this verdant valley right outside of Melbourne.