Wining in Melbourne

Melbourne is quite a lovely and modern city, with some terrific fine-dining places, and an ambience as good as any — what with the Yarra River meandering lazily through the city en route to the sea, a carefully-maintained green cover (quite a lot of the trees lining the roads are less than 20 years old), and several outstanding (and clean!) public parks.

I was there as a guest of Tourism Victoria to participate in the annual Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, a 10-day extravaganza showcasing some of the best that the city has to offer.

The festivities started on March 4 with “The Longest Lunch in The World” — referring to the length of the table, which in the case of Melbourne was 307 meters, almost the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This was a sit-down pre-plated four-course affair conceived by celebrity chef Gabriel Gate for over 1,000 people, with the 4 wines (a bubbly, a white, a Rose’, and a red) from the nearby Yering Station winery.

I later visited Yering Station – a beautiful, modern setup, with a gourmet fine-dining restaurant and one of the best views of the valley. For me the best part of Melbourne is its easy accessibility to wineries: Victoria state has some 850 at last count, the nearest winery being barely 45 minutes from the city centre. The Yarra Valley is probably the best-known wine area of the state, and is simply beautiful: acres of gently-sloping meadows and vineyards, dotted here and there by wineries, dairy farms, and resorts.

Our group visited four wineries (all in the Yarra Valley), and each was distinctive and different. Dominique Portet is run by an eponymous Frenchman and produces largely sparkling wines, as does the neighbouring Domain Chandon (owned by LVMH, of Moet Hennessy fame) – but one is practically a cottage operation, while the other has been around for 30 years and defined the giant company’s foray into Australia (well ahead of the curve). Then there is Yarra Yering – a boutique winery which uniquely still crushes its grapes using a hand-operated (stainless steel) basket press, ferments the must in 1-KL square vats, and matures all its wines in French oak. Close by is the 1 million-litre Coldstream Hills winery, owned by Fosters’ Wine Estates, with an ultra-modern highly automated winery.

In India the Australian wines we get are mass-production brands like Jacob’s Creek and Yellowtail, and our hotels are all Francophiles with nary an award-winning drop from Down Under on their wine lists. That is a pity. Even in the few days there, I found that even if one was to look at just Victoria state, one would be spoilt for choice: the cool coastal districts do great Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, while further inland there are terrific Cabernets and (of course) Shiraz. That there is close interaction between state authorities and the wine industry was brought home to me by a tasting of 18 wines from six award-winning wineries (all on Langton’s list) whose owners came down personally for the interaction and lunch.

Wines I’ve been drinking: If one includes the wines quaffed at mealtimes, then in the first week of March, I’ve tried nearly 80 different wines — of course, one spits when tasting (else you’re under the table pretty quick!). The wines that stood out for me were the Mount Mary Quintet 2006 (97 points, A$ 125), a still-young but incredibly complex and powerful Bordeaux-blend wine, and the Castagna Genesis Syrah 2008 (93 points, A$ 75) , silky-smooth and spicy and a finish that went on forever. Whoever said that Aussie wines were either cheap or poor quality? Here’s Mud in yer eye, Mate!

The author is a Bangalore-based wine consultant