Yering for a Real Treat

We have some family staying with us from England and, in discussing what sorts of experiences we might like to expose them to, it didn't take us long to decide that a day trip to the Yarra Valley would be a great introduction to our Garden State.

So, flowing down the Eastern Freeway on one of those Riedel-Clear Melbourne days, a splash of moussy white clouds high in the sky, we swirled in on the rolling green hills of the Yarra Valley; first stop, White Rabbit Brewery in Healesville for a refreshing ale.

This is a Sunday afternoon destination made in hedonist heaven. A large, sun-drenched veranda with comfy chairs and couches greets us, before entering what really is a makeshift bar, a kind of cobbled together lounge, as our visitor David said, as though the brewery had been pushed aside to accommodate it.

We ordered a round of mixed White Rabbit favourites, a Pipsqueak Cider, clean and refreshing, a White Ale, floral and cloudy, a Dark Ale, rich choc/coffee characters and a Rogers Amber Ale. I'm a big fan of Rogers primarily for its unique combination of heavier flavours and light style, a fact which had me drinking it before I even realised it is a mid strength ale. At 1 standard drink per bottle, it is the perfect BBQ beer (or refreshment for the designated driver).

Once 2.3o rolled around Giant Steps bistro was ready for our lunch booking and we ambled across the car park to the winery.

The Giant Steps / Innocent Bystander Winery has an incredible bistro attached. A great cafe bar at the entrance, selling house-made bread and pastries (and their wines of course) introducing a grand dining hall with a great relaxed vibe. Slightly noisy, this only adds to the fun environment.
For me, the draw-card of the bistro is the pizza menu, great, wood-fired pizzas, which even on a Sunday afternoon, with a full room come to the table within 15 minutes.

We had a mushroom, a spicy sausage, and I can't remember the name of mine but it had an unctuous spread of sweet, delicious tomato sauce, just thick enough to hold onto the whole anchovies, draped amongst oozing Reggiano. Let me get a Chamois for my keyboard...

We were worried that a pizza each might be too much, well, it was just right. Well, actually it was just right for me but a little much for my wife, at which point I helped her finish.

We drank 2010 Giant Steps Pinot Noir (Sexton Vineyard) and this is classic Yarra Valley Pinot, sour cherry but not too sour, earthy without the undergrowth, dry enough and medium bodied. These Giant steps wines do improve with age and I have tasted their 'Harry's Monster' Cab blend before which, being from what I consider one of Australia's best Cabernet regions, is a total knockout.

The Yarra Valley is probably most well known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and, although I thoroughly agree with its deserving fame for the latter, I think it produces far better Cabernet and Cabernet blends than Pinot. The pinots are undoubtedly drinkable and deserving of recognition, but the Cabernets, from Mount Mary to Punt Road are expressive, delicate, long lived and fascinating.

Anyway, we didn't have any Cabernet, so, whatevs.

From here, we made our way across the valley, Southern Victoria still blessing us with flooding sunlight, up the Melba Hwy towards Yarra Glen, pulling in to the elegant drive of the region's first and arguably most famous Winery, Yering Station.

I have a tradition of always buying a bottle (or two) of something from Yering Station that can't be bought anywhere else. An exciting draw-card for me is that they are forever producing smallish quantities of wines available at cellar door only - small parcels of fruit they are experimenting with and every time I'm there it's something different. An amazing Nebbiolo in 2005, a lovely soft and moreish Sangiovese in 2006, a non-vintage Tawny last year... I was eagerly anticipating today's treat.

We wandered through the garden entrance and under the grand atrium to admire the unique and quite stunning view east over the ranges.

A turn back through some glass doors towards the restaurant reveals windows into the underground cellar, which is cavernous and old-worldly - on past a museum-like display spanning the corridor's wall, of many and varied Yering Station wines through the vintages, and finally, a Methuselah of 1999 Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon (that I would die for).

Back through some heavy glass doors and towards the business end; the shop and Cellar Door.

On the tasting menu I immediately notice a 'Pinot Noir Village'. The word Village referencing a style of wine in France which is the kind of 'entry level' local version of whatever the particular appelation happens to be (Cotes Du Rhone Villages, for example, tends to be fruity and easy drinking version of their Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre style, generally cheaper and often VERY good). So with this we started.
And it was pretty great. It had more texture and tannin than I was expecting for an $18 Pinot. A strong backbone of acid carrying the not inconsiderable fruit weight to a long and pleasant finish.
This was my wine.
They also had some 'Museum' Chardonnay for tasting, which was in fact the regular Chardonnay in the 2006 vintage, that would've been great and exciting, except that we have a few bottles at home and it seems to be asleep or something. I know that white wines can develop over the short term and then enter a plateau or sleep period, before developping further. Ah, the enigmatic world of wine!

A turn around the shop revealed more treats one can only find in THAT shop; YS RESERVE Pinot Noir (in fact, the estate Pinot can be rather hard to find too) YS Reserve Shiraz Viognier (again, the estate SV is one of the best value reds on the market) and they are still selling that lovely Sangiovese, called MUIR as it comes from that vineyard.

So, my latest purchase of rare elixir from Victoria's first vineyard in the crook of my arm, the sun on our faces (and in our eyes as we head back down the freeway) I am glad that this latest visit to the undulating Yarra Valley has lived up to all its epicurian promises.

D.

________________

YERING STATION:
38 Melba Hwy Yarra Glen 3775
Victoria, Australia
View on map »
Driving directions »
Phone: +61 3 9730 0100
Fax: +61 3 9739 0135
Email: info@yering.com
Web site: www.yering.com

Monday-Friday

10:00am-5:00pm

Weekends & Public Holidays

10:00am-6:00pm

Praise Cheeses / Raclette me at 'em

Had a great wine and food experience at my sister Sophie and her partner Mark's place on Friday night.

The brief was cheese and wine.

We like to think outside the box...

You may not know that Sophie and I spent the first 8 and 6 respective years of our lives in Switzerland. Mama and Daddy Banks moved to the land of cheese and chocolate in 1975, 'just for a few years' to take up a job at the GATT; they did in fact fall in love with the place and stay nine years, returning with a troupe of three kids. Little Jules was only 18 months when we returned but there's still plenty of cuckoo in him.


One of the great culinary curios we brought back with us is Raclette.

Traditionally Raclette is a semi firm cheese, in a round of about 6 kgs which diners would halve and then heat in front of the fire and scrape onto their dishes, over potatoes and pickled veggies and small goods. The word Raclette is actually derived from the French 'Racler' meaning Scrape.

You can still have Raclette this way all over Switzerland and the Savoie in France but the alternative for ex-pats is a Raclette machine. This machine constitutes a strong Banks tradition and is basically a grill plate on an electric element under which paddles of cheese are placed and on top of which the trimmings can be placed to warm and sizzle.


This is what we dined on at Soph's place Friday night. I managed to source some 'Heidi Raclette' cheese from Jones the Grocer in Doncaster and was tasked with choosing the appropriate wines.

I have been working at a store in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne which has some great little gems from past vintages, one of these gems was a 2005 Woodstock Botrytis Semillon. More commonly 'Dessert Wine'; Semillon grapes are left to overripen on the vine until Botrytis Cynerea known as 'Noble Rot' begins to grow on the grapes. The winemaking process is then undertaken and an incredible magic is produced in the form of white wines which are sweet, smell of apricots and in the best examples have fascinating mineral character, full body and will live a very long time. Woodstock is a winery based in McLaren Vale, making big heavy reds and this beautiful little Dessert. Something for after, I thought. (Not that it wouldn't be pretty fun during)

I also knew I had a bottle of 2005 Brown Brothers Patricia Sparkling in the fridge at home and felt like this would be just perfect before and during the cheese feast.

Let me tell you; despite their reputation for cheap, sweet, unsophisticated fizzy wines, Brown Brothers excel in world class, complex, long lived premium wines which will stand proud and tall next to any other wine of their kind. As I said to Mark; if you need a premium wine for a special occasion, a gift, or just to spoil, Patricia is a no-brainer.

I have seen Patricia Cabernet next to Chateau Lynch Moussas, Patricia Chardonnay next to Leeuwin Estate Art Series, Patricia Sparkling next to Louis Roederer and Bollinger and let me say they put in quite a performance, easily equaling and often outshining these far more expensive and famous wines. (get Pat for about $40!)

Sophie is responsible for possiby my very favourite appetiser - Gougeres - an incredible baked choux pastry mixed with Gruyere cheese which has its origins in Burgundy.

And so with this delight we started the evening, after firing the cork out of the Patricia, (and toasting a new job for Soph), we tucked into this brilliant, indulgent feast, the bubbly cuddled up to the food with lovely flavours of citrus and gentle bready notes, the texture just enough to cut through the oily cheese. So much of the enjoyment in this meal is the interactiveness. Loading up your paddle with cheese, sliding it under the heat (I like to get mine get REALLY melted, to the point of crispy edges), hearing the potatos sizzle on the grill and deciding where to scrape your next ooze of Fromage; on the spuds? Over some prosciutto and a round of Baguette? Just onto the plate to behave as the world's best sauce?

Heaven.

Mark had some amazing chocolate from Haigh's and I too had brought some Willies Chocolate and, although the flavours of chocolate and Botrytis Semillon aren't necessarily a perfect match (better off with Key Lime Pie?), there was a feast of sweetness to be had and I indulged heavily. The wine was soft and alluring, classic apricot and mineral notes with a palate that was slightly over sweet and short (although this is possibly attributable to the choc).

We reclined on the lounge and concluded that remorse is pointless when food and wine are this good.

DB out.

Back to The Future

When I started this blog, I was discussing it with a good friend and admirable wine professional, Tim Robinson; we were on the road back from a trip to Heathcote and discussing the cathartic nature of pooring one's wine thoughts onto the 'page' and thought it might be a good idea for Tim to make a contribution.

I loved the idea and, having read many of Tim's reviews on points of sale, having had many a gourmand experience together and generally tending to see the world at large and in particular world of wine through similarly coloured (and probably blurry) glasses, I really looked forward to receiving just such an offering.

Here it is:
____________________________________________
Back to The Future

I've definitely been in the mood lately for nostalgia. Been flicking through old photos, the real ones, not the digital Facebook kind, as well playing a bit of Icehouse and 1927 on the iPod. Don't judge me, you know Ish was one of the albums of all time! All that thinking about how fantastic everything was 20 years ago, got me thinking about something old school on the wine side of things.

And the natural conclusion? Full-bodied, rich, buttery, creamy, viscous, malo, French oak matured, old fashioned chardonnay. It's been coming to the attention of many wine retailers that we're after a chardonnay with a bit of generosity. A bit of richness. A bit of warmth. If you're looking for a Chablis-style? Buy a Chablis! Want an unwooded Chardy? Grab a riesling!

The brief was given to my local indie wine haunt, and Warner Glen Estate chardonnay is what was thrust into my awaiting hands. Gotta admit to not knowing a hell of a lot -read nothing- about Warner Glen. Seems they're a 20 year old vineyard with a heavy focus on terroir, site selection and 100% estate fruit.

Their 08 chard gave me the nostalgic trip I was looking for. Michael J. Fox would've been proud. Marzipan, almonds, hazelnut & cream. Brief fulfilled. Bruce Dukes is the winemaker here, and with extensive experience in the Napa and with Pierro, it's no wonder this sings a little. The judges at the Mt Barker Wine Show didn't mind it either.

Available at some good indie retails around the country, grab yourself a WGE chardy for around $25.

blackhearts and sparrows
www.blackheartsandsparrows.com.au
Blackhearts and Sparrows wine purveyors