Yarra Yering

[Irregular]

On the spare of the moment, decided to venture to Yarra Yering yesterday for the first time in a few years – the last YY purchases for me were the 99’s.

It was wet and cold here yesterday, and the trip bought back many fond memories of my first visits to the valley, and Yarra Yering in particular – cold and wet days in the middle of winter, standing next to that small open fire in the old tasting room. Great leisurely days indeed.

My introduction to wine was in the late 70’s early 80’s venturing off to all the usual suspects at Rutherglen, reasonable wines but not terribly spectacular. What a contrast the Yarra Valley offered back then. Here were rich, powerful, concentrated wines, the likes of which I’d never experienced. Yarra Yering was also open every weekend and together with Mount Mary became amongst my favourite wines in the land. My old cellar spreadsheet tells me the 82 YY No1 cost all of $7 cellar door! In fact I well recall buying, and enjoying at the time, the wines from Prigorje - what is now the Yarra Yering Underhill vineyard.

Anyway, I tried the range yesterday and here are my brief impressions.

The whites – I’ve never been a fan and guess what! The first was a Sauv Blanc/Semillon blend. I didn’t like it at all. Was offered the Chardonnay but declined.

All current release reds were 2004, I think!
Sangiovese
Not for me, it was thin, weedy and sharp, lacking depth and character.

Pinot
Finally something good. I liked this very much. Very fragrant, concentrated and even at this stage some complexity. Good length. A fine pinot from YY.

New Vineyard Cabernet blend
From 8 year old vines. The past 10 years or so at YY has seen a chronic shortage and frantic rush on their wines, they often sold out with a week of their release. In an attempt to get back to the business of looking after the grass roots wine buyer and keeping the cellar door open throughout the year, they have increased production and bottled the new vines separately. For a so called young vines wine, this was excellent, though not in the league of the No1. It is very approachable, soft, still quite fruit driven and cheaper than the other wines. I think it’s also a good medium term cellaring proposition.

The Underhill, No2 and No1 were all great. They will clearly cellar well. The colour of these wines was excellent, all deep dark red/black. Simply looking at them you sensed they would be good, and they were. The two Shiraz’s were concentrated fruit driven wines. Nothing at Yarra Yering is oak dominated, the vineyard, vines and seasons grapes is what you get in the bottle. If your preference is for massive oak influenced fruit bombs, YY will not appeal. The No1 is the least approachable now, but give it 10 years and it will sing. There’s tannin there, a hint acid, good fruit flavours and weight - all ready to sit and integrate. It should be very good.

The Merlot is something of an oddity. Odd in that it’s like no other Oz Merlot I’ve ever tried and also because it commands such a high price ($130). To its credit, it’s a great wine, full on in fact. I really liked it, but have always baulked at the price, and did again.

Port Sorts
A blend of 5 varieties. Apparently port isn’t in fashion at the moment, good really, because I love a good bottle of Vintage Port on a cold, wet, miserable winters day while sitting down for a 5 hour lunch – typically a Sunday, and there are plenty of bargains around. Anyway, this is a big wine, but not exactly to my preference. I just find this one too spirity for my palate.

Also on offer yesterday were a selection of older No1’s – 2002, 2001, 97, 95, 90. A great concept which should be adopted by others. Actually, I think there were six on offer, but I can’t recall the other vintage.

Briefly:
2002 – Quite lean and thin, this surprised me as I thought 2002 was good in the area, struck me as a difficult vintage wine.
2001 – Much better wine, still way too young, but good.
1997 – A vintage I thought was not great, but this wine was very good. Drinking near its peak, it has come together beautifully. Just starting to show some colour fading, its nicely perfumed with good, integrated fruit and finishes well.
1995 – The weak link in this group. Showing its age, fruit has faded somewhat, drinking ok, but nothing great here. If you have any, drink soon.
Just remembered the 6th, it was a 1992 – yes, lovely wine. Still holding up without any problems, no rush to drink them. A fine No1 indeed.
1990 – Without a shadow of a doubt THE wine of the day. This was simply spectacular. No browning at all, still a deep dark red/black. If served blind you would swear this wine was no more than 7 or 8 years old, it was simply stunning. Massive fruit concentration and a finish which lingered for ages. This wine will cellar for another decade easily. Glorious

cheers
Ian

[Lincoln]

How much was the '90?

[Irregular]

Poor terminology on my part Lincoln, they were offered for tasting, not sale.

[Subtle red]

Lincoln, I too was at YY huddling up to the warmth of the heater on Sunday afternoon.

I agree 100% on your call re the 1990 No1, it was outstanding! Wonderful fruit after 16 years and still incredibly youthful with plenty of legs to go the distance - if only I had some in the cellar!!!!!

I also enjoyed the current release No 1, No 2 and Underhill. Whilst not overly appealing immediatley, they had wonderful structure with good acid, balanced fruit and tannins. As usual the wines are clearly structured to cellar, very, very well.

Interestingly I remember from last year's tasting where a vertical of the Underhill Shiraz was on offer, the 1997 vintage was the standout. This year, after the 1990 No 1, I found the 1997 No 1 to be next best pick, so clearly the 1997 vintage at YY was a cracker. Was 1997 good across the Yarra Valley??

Subtle Red

[Mark S]

Interestingly I remember from last year's tasting where a vertical of the Underhill Shiraz was on offer, the 1997 vintage was the standout. This year, after the 1990 No 1, I found the 1997 No 1 to be next best pick, so clearly the 1997 vintage at YY was a cracker. Was 1997 good across the Yarra Valley??

Subtle Red

I'm a big fan of YY, at least the older vintages, which I cherry pick at auctions ($65/bottle is a little too expensive for my regular drinking, unfortunately)
Have had glorious examples, even from "ordinary" vintages ('85 and '93 No 1's, '93 No 2, 1992 Pinot, a freak wine, '92 Underhill) and yes, I remember the 1990 No 1 which even years ago, redefined what Aust wine could be like for me.
The 1997 Underhill I tried just weeks ago - very disappointing - thin, green, acidic, half down the sink - maybe a bad bottle? '98 on the other hand was gloriously rich, if still too young.
'97 produced a lot of good reds from the Yarra Valley, in particular pinots.

[Baby Chickpea]

1990 – Without a shadow of a doubt THE wine of the day. This was simply spectacular. No browning at all, still a deep dark red/black. If served blind you would swear this wine was no more than 7 or 8 years old, it was simply stunning. Massive fruit concentration and a finish which lingered for ages. This wine will cellar for another decade easily. Glorious

cheers
Ian

Damn, I sold most of mine to auction years ago!

[Irregular]

[/quote]Damn, I sold most of mine to auction years ago! [/quote]

First thing I checked when I put this years is the cellar was how many 90's I had - two. Not sure if I'm or about this fact!

[Nayan]

Have you guys checked out the Wine Hub at the Dairy in the Yarra Valley?

Gives you a chance to taste and buy wines from a lot of small producers that don't otherwise have a cellar door presence.

The cheese is pretty good too.