Drink Victorian: our wine teams hit the road
Drink Victorian is a celebration of the innovation and creative spirit that make the drinks industry in Victoria so vibrant.
Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, in partnership with the Victorian Government, created the ‘Drink Victorian’ initiative to shine a light on the incredible drinks grown and created in our fine state, and those who make and serve them. It brings inspiration through personal recommendations, the inside word on the latest refreshments on the market, meeting the people behind the drinks, finding new places to taste and buy them, and joining the conversation about what drinking in Victoria can look like in the future.
Learn more about Drink Victorian on the MFWF website here.
Our wine teams recently took to the road to discover some incredible wineries, meet the makers, drink their drinks and generally have a good time while doing so. Here’s what they had to say:
Elisa Perisotto - Sommelier, Gimlet at Cavendish House
Beechworth & Rutherglen
This trip gave me the opportunity to discover products made in Victoria which I didn’t know enough about!
Of course it has been amazing to see with my own eyes how Rutherglen Muscat - so special and internationally recognised - is made, but it has also been so important to see what else is produced within the same area: beers (Bridge Road Brewers), Gin, Vermuth, Apera, Bitters (Beechworth Bitters Company), and Cider (The Cheeky Grog Co.). It was such an incredible visit with my team, and I’m so glad we had the opportunity to break out of the day-to-day of the restaurant to see some of this beautiful state.
Carlin Jackson - Sommelier, Marion
Macedon & Heathcote
Having never been to Mount Macedon, what a treat to be having breakfast martinis at Mountain Distilling before some foraging and gin and whiskey tasting. The takeaway was certainly the Red Gum Whiskey. It was incredible to see and note that it is more a feature of science rather than traditional long form ageing!
A trip to Harcourt Cider was delightful and informative! They are starting to make Eau de Vies, although they’re very humble about distilling being a whole new beast to learn.
The visit to Vinea Marson and Tellurian was exceptional in framing how the Heathcote region functions. Mario at Vinea Marson is almost entirely dedicated to Italian varieties with incredible results. While we didn't get to visit Chalmers, Kim was there while we were at Vinea Marson and it was good to see their working relationship and passion for alternative varieties. Lunch at Tellurian was great, if not a little disorientating coming out of a morning of alternative varieties and being thrown into a more traditional French-influenced estate. But they've planted nero d'avola and bush vine Grenache, so there's some excitement there and they're relatively young to the region!
Driving south into Southern Heathcote was probably by biggest surprise and most memorable part of the regions I saw. There are literally large granite boulders EVERYWHERE. The Syrahmi spot is insanely picturesque - what a place to grow wine and then go sit on a boulder and read a book, providing you have the time! Adam Forster took us through pretty much every barrel, amphora and egg imaginable. But one of my favourite experiences was Adam's side-by-side bottling of Mourvèdre, one done entirely in amphora, one in old oak, exactly the same vinification otherwise. The minimal differences in the already clean labelling and being able to appreciate a difference of style was very cool.
The hospitality of everyone was incredibly generous. Balgownie Estate and Boom Town Wines (which seemed more like a winemaker’s party that we crashed!) were also incredible. But I spent most of that time asking LOTS of questions about sulphur, water usage, varieties, viticulture and vinification.
Barney Reilly - Wine Leader, Cutler & Co.
Yarra Valley
First stop of the day was Yeringberg for a tasting of classic YV whites and a chat about the history of the region.
After that it was up the road to the new Levantine Hill event space to taste YV reds and talk about the sub regional differences in the Yarra mostly in reference to soil and altitude.
I really enjoyed this tasting because it gave me a new appreciation for YV Cabernet made in both classic styles and in more modern styles. I was also blown away by listening to Caroline Mooney speak. Her intimate knowledge of her vineyard sites and every single influencing factor that makes her wine taste the way it does was very inspiring. Really enjoyed her 2017 Shiraz.
Next was the Denton vineyard for an amazing Japanese lunch with Simon Denton and Mac Forbes. We drank exclusively YV Nebbiolo and they spoke about alternative varieties for the region and preparing for the future in regards to the warming climate.
The Final vineyard of the afternoon was Thousand Candles with winemakers from Rob Dolin, De Bortoli and Santolin. A very interesting conversation surrounding the styles of wine the Yarra should be producing was had here. Most of the winemakers were of the view that if YV wants to be a competative region they need to shift their focus to producing more fruit forward 'drink now' styles. Whilst one winemaker thought that they should only be producing premium long aging styles and that anything else would damage the reputation of the region.
A quick stop in at Banks Botanicals to try some of their non alc. options and then dinner at Jayden Ong’s cellar bar. The dinner was unreal. Lots of very generous hospitality and interesting conversations.
