During the first decade of Coldstream Hills life, gaining access to Yarra Valley grapes was a continuing nightmare. Demand far exceeded supply, the vines were mainly young, and many growers had no experience in growing grapes. To make matters worse, you couldn’t specify the varieties (most obviously pinot noir and chardonnay) that you wanted – you took all or none. I remember having to take sylvaner and gewurztraminer, and then label the semillon sauvignon blanc sylvaner and gewurztraminer as Fume Blanc. Trying to persuade lawyers, dentists, company moguls et al to obtain expert advice on pruning, canopy management and, above all else, controlling yield to levels consistent with appropriate quality.
So it was that in 1995 I was over the moon to become the purchaser of Wombat Creek’s entire crop of chardonnay and pinot noir. Wombat Creek remains the highest vineyard in the Upper Yarra Valley and, up to 1994, had sold its production to Seppelt for sparkling wine. As the baumes started to rise, I took the 40-minute drive every couple of days, found massive wombat lairs in the rows of vines, and was seriously happy. The vineyard was a picture.
Then the rain started, and day after day continued to fall. So did the baumes as the berries were swollen by the vines’ uptake of water. Then the first signs of botrytis started to appear, most ominously on the pinot noir. In desperation we hand-picked and hand-sorted (twice) a tonne of pinot to see whether it was possible to make a wine worth drinking, but realised the best chance was to press it before ferment started and make a blanc de noir sparkling wine. It was our first sparkling wine, and our last blanc de noir.
Some days later I sent one of the vintage cellar rats to see how the chardonnay was faring, and bring back a bucket for analysis. He came back empty handed. ‘There’s no chardonnay’ he said, ‘it’s all pinot’. I jumped in my car, he a passenger. The chardonnay was where I said it would be, heavily festooned with botrytis and dark in colour. We later picked a tonne and made our first (and last) Limited Release Botrytis Chardonnay.
Upwards of 100 tonnes remained on the vine, the grower’s entire yearly income in dire jeopardy. ‘You should have picked it earlier’ screamed the grower. Earlier (before the rain) the grapes were 10˚ be, so the clear terms of the contract meant, much though we wished it otherwise, the grapes were useless for table wine.
But around the corner, and 50m lower, was the large Hoddles Creek Vineyard in a similar situation, except for its very steep slopes (Wombat Creek is basically flat). Master sparkling winemaker Ed Carr (of Hardys) had contracted to purchase the Hoddles Creek grapes, but plans for a helicopter to lift picking bins up from the rows came to nothing when the pickers were sinking up to their knees in mud (tractors long since sidelined).
So the Hoddles Creek grapes were lost, but I learned that Hardys were prepared to pay the Wombat Creek grower the $1500 a tonne specified in my contract. It was a win-win outcome, spoiled only when I heard the Wombat Creek grower was still complaining about my failure to pick the grapes before the rain.
The Botrytis Chardonnay was packaged in clear glass 375ml bottles, sold at the cellar door and on-premise. It is still lively, acidity as important as the residual sugar, and is starting to slim down. However, the magic of the screwcap means it will live for many years yet.
The Blanc de Noir has long since been sold and consumed, but Coldstream Hills’ track record in wine shows of its traditional method chardonnay pinot noir wines puts it a close second behind the House of Arras releases.
