Yering Station

The cool climate region of the Yarra Valley is located around an hours drive from Melbourne south eastern Australia. Cool climate in that there is considerable variation in altitude and aspect that even the warmest sites of the Yarra Valley are comparatively cooler than the other Australian viticultural regions. In comparison to French growing regions the Yarra Valleys climate is slightly warmer than Burgundy, yet cooler than Bordeaux.


Yering Station Shiraz Viognier 2006
95% Shiraz, 5 % Viognier


Served after a 4 hour decant this deep garnet wine clinged to the glass with firm legs and immediately started to give off its pronounced aroma of dark and red fruit with blackcurrant, dark cheery, a little blueberry and a baked blackberry black current crumble fresh from the oven with spice, pepper and a smoky vanilla topping. Quite dry on the palate with some acidity the smooth body shows a very clean tannin structure, creamy but not in a full bodied round oaked thick kind of way. I feel some very northern Rhone tobacco notes to this well balanced wine. This wine was a great buy at around £10 and certainly gave a good imitation of some of the far more pricey Cote Rotie wines. 91/100

Find this wine on Wine-Searcher

Laughing Magpies

d'Arenberg - The Laughing Magpie - Shiraz Viognier - 2007

Allegedly this wine was the McLarenVale’s first ever Nothern Rhone blend combining 90% Shiraz and its white partner, 10% Viognier. The 2006 vintage started and ended early in the McLaren Vale with a dry winter, heavy rains in spring and a mild, early summer leading into a warmer period during veraison halting vegetative growth. 2006 grew vines with healthy, balanced canopies on most soils and later allowed vines to channel energy into the fruit. The Shiraz and Viognier bunches were crushed and co fermented together followed by an ageing process of 12 months in French and US oak.

This wine was decanted for around 4 hours and followed a bottle of d'Arenberg Last Ditch Viognier tasted last week. It had a very dark appearance with nicely gradiated edges and a complex, interesting nose of raspberry's, blueberry's and spice. The taste was smooth but full bodied with notes of pepper, cedar box, tobacco, chocolate and dark fruit. The finish was medium but showed a nice ripe firm tannin structure and again a peppery play. The 14.5% alcohol is very well hidden by the structure of this wine and at around £12 to £13 is very enjoyable for a dinner occasion or on its own. 90+/100

Find this wine
Wine Searcher

A lovely Viognier

d'Arenberg - The Last Ditch - Viognier - 2007

This Northern Rhone varietal grown in the cool climate of the Adelaide Hills was fermented in old oak, no mallolactic with only free-run juice making it to the bottled wine. It spent approximately 9 months in 5 to 20 year old French and American oak barrels although with no obvious oak influence. Served from a chilled bottle this wine instantly began to fill the room with its green earthy vegetative aroma. My glass looked like it had lime juice in it, the cordial stuff you buy and mix with water, slightly green with pale edges. Quite complex on the nose, herbal, vegetative like you stuck your head inside a green bush with hard packed soil and dry stones underneath it. A little apricot as if it had been smacked with one of those big round stones. First impressions were good. The thing I noted right away on the taste was macerated white fruit, like white currents soaked in melon juice and apricots but keeping the fruityness in check with the apricot stones getting ground into this mix. Very round and soft on the pallet with a little thickness, very little acidity. Quite a good finish showing hard mandarin peal, herbs and that bush again. At 13.5% alcohol and available for under £10 this wine is very easy to drink, I like it and will be adding another to my collection for a summers day. 90/100

Find this wine
Wine-Searcher

More d'Arenberg write ups to follow soon.