The Mornington Peninsula has a cool maritime local weather as a result of it’s surrounded by water on three sides. There are round 60 wineries, largely household owned. The world makes a speciality of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Though there have been vines within the 1800s, the present wine trade began in 1972. Due to the humidity there may be not a whole lot of biodynamic or natural viticulture.
The primary vineyard we visited was Moorooduc, which suggests swampy floor within the native indigenous language. This vineyard was established by Dr McIntyre and was planted in 1983. Regardless of his age of 77 he’s nonetheless lively within the vineyard, however his daughter Kate has taken over the reigns.
There isn’t any phylloxera within the peninsula (but), however most vines are grated anyway due to nematodes and the acidity of the soil. After we went for a stroll within the vineyards at Moorooduc, we needed to disinfect our footwear with bleach anyway, to cut back the danger of introducing phylloxera.
Moorooduc applies biodynamic farming, together with cowl crops to enhance the soil.
As insurance coverage coverage towards local weather change they’ve not too long ago planted some Nebbiolo, after having made 2 bottles of Nebbiolo for just a few vintages to show that it may be made right here.
All white wine is barrel fermented with wild yeast. The grapes are chilled earlier than vinification and malolactic is carried out. These are the wines we tasted:
- Property Chardonnay 2022: citrus, refined oak, younger.
- The Moorooduc McIntyre Chardonnay 2021: oak, creamy, elegant, younger.
- The Moorooduc McIntyre Chardonnay 2005: complicated, stone fruit, creamy, lovely, doesn’t present its superior age.
- Robinson Chardonnay 2012: complicated, built-in oak, creamy, elegant, stability.
- Pinot Gris 2019 (no new oak): stone fruit, creamy, savory, stability.
- Pinot Gris 2014: golden, developed, savory, good acidity.
- Pinot Gris On Skins 2022 (orange wine, 19 days on skins): rosé coloration, tannins, meals wine.
- Pinot Noir 2020: gentle coloration, delicate, excessive acidity.
- Robinson Pinot Noir 2021 (destemmed, 15 months in French oak of which 20% new): pink fruit, spicy, contemporary.
- Robinson Pinot Noir 2015: I assumed the acidity was too excessive, however others in our group appreciated this very a lot.
- The Moorooduc McIntyre Pinot Noir 2021 (hottest wine of the vineyard): restrained nostril, nonetheless younger, excessive acidity.
- Backyard Winery Pinot Noir 2021 (complete bunch fermentation): herbaceous
- McIntyre Shiraz 2019: lovely blackberry aroma, excessive acidity
The following vineyard we visited was Yabby Lake. The winery was planted in 1998, however the brand new vineyard was constructed in 2015. The winemaking right here follows a special philosophy; malo shouldn’t be carried out however as a substitute the wine is fermented with excessive solids to acquire a creamy texture, whereas preserving the pure acidity. Yabby Lake has 65% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. Entire bunch fermentation is utilized to all of the wines, for between 20% and 100%. Wines are aged for 12 months in French oak, of which 10-20% new.
At Yabby Lake we did vertical tastings of three wines:
- Single Winery Chardonnay 2022: oak, citrus, crisp
- 2018: mineral, developed, crisp
- 2014: mineral, developed, crisp
- Single Winery Pinot Noir 2022: sweet, younger, good tannin
- 2018: herbaceous
- 2016: mineral, tannins extra outstanding
- Pinot Noir Block 2 2022: younger, fruity, construction
- Block 1 2018: herbaceous, developed
- Block 5 2018: cherries, tannin, stability
Blocks are a part of the identical winery and are very shut to one another, so it was attention-grabbing to style the clear distinction between Blocks 1 and 5 of the identical classic. Block 1 has a extra sandy soil, whereas Block 5 has extra clay.
The ultimate vineyard we visited within the Mornington Peninsula was “Ten Minutes By Tractor”, the place we first had lunch at Alli’s Wine Bar. We had the entry stage Chardonnay (contemporary and crisp) and Pinot Noir (gentle and spicy) of Ten Minutes By Tractor to accompany the meals:
- Tractor backyard inexperienced salad with herb dressing
- Gruyere Gougères with truffle cream filling
- White and inexperienced asparagus with whipped potato, 62C/144F sous vide egg yolk, potato cream
- Crab crumpet
- Crispy potato, smoked crème fraìche, pickled onions
- Mushroom cream with puffed rice and pickled mushrooms
- Pork and duck terrine
- Rooster ravioli with mushrooms and tarragon
The “Ten Minutes By Tractor” vineyard was based as a small co-operative by three households in 1997 that lived shut by one another, 10 minutes by tractor. The primary classic was 2000. The vineyard was acquired by the present proprietor in 2004, who nonetheless releases single winery wines with the founding households’ names. Extra vineyards had been added. They’ve 50% Pinot Noir and 35% Chardonnay. The Chardonnay obtain solely partial malolactic to retain pure acidity. No complete bunch fermentation. Right here we tasted the next wines:
- Property Chardonnay 2022: contemporary, oak, excessive acidity
- McCutcheon Chardonnay 2022: stone fruit, excessive acidity
- Judd Chardonnay 2022: stone fruit, oak, excessive acidity
- Trahere Chardonnay 2021 (first launch of the high-density winery planted in 2016 with 12,000 vines per hectare in comparison with the extra ordinary 2,500 in Australia): stone fruit/peach, focus, racy acidity.
- Property Up the Hill Pinot Noir 2022: pink fruit, elegant, excessive acidity
- Property Down the Hill Pinot Noir 2022: restrained aroma, earthy, herbaceous, excessive acidity, extra construction than Up the Hill
- Judd Pinot Noir 2022: pink fruit, excessive acidity, gentle tannins
- McCutcheon Pinot Noir 2022: savory, much less acidic, extra physique, extra tannins
This horizontal tasting of Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from the identical classic was very attention-grabbing. It was exceptional to note the distinction between McCutcheon and Judd, or between Uphill and Downhill, as these vineyards are lower than a kilometer aside. The harvest Down the Hill is three weeks earlier than Up the Hill.
Our tour isn’t completed but, but it surely appears to me that winemakers in Australia could have turn out to be too obsessive about acidity. Australian wines have the status to be too low on acidity, however up to now I haven’t tasted a single wine with acidity that was too low. Fairly the opposite: for my style a few of these wines are too acidic and would profit from decreasing the acidity (e.g. by malolactic fermentation). That is in fact in some half as a consequence of the truth that our tour focuses on cool local weather wine areas in Australia. And it’s my private opinion — not everybody in our group agrees with me.
We had some easy Greek meals for dinner. It goes with out saying there was Australian wine:
- Tim Adams Clare Valley Pinot Gris 2023
- Tim Adams Clare Valley Cabernet-Malbec 2018
- Helen’s Hill Yarra Beachley Block Chardonnay 2022
- Brini McLaren Vale Blewitt Springs Single Winery Shiraz 2018
