Great Merlot is made in the vineyard. At its best, it is like a fingerprint, inextricably linking the personality and mood of the land. Yarra Valley produces distinctive, elegant and complex Merlot wines. A single parcel of fruit, hand picked off Blocks 3 & 4 of Sexton Vineyard, are treated to an old world style of vinification, into a mostly Merlot wine, which can be topped up from year to year by portions of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon or Franc, to enhance the tannins and build enticing complexity.

Established 1988 to a bounty of rich, grey loam clays at Tarrawarra, the eminent Tarraford site enjoys a fortuitously slower ripening season than its neighbouring climes. Planted to a diversity of aspect and clones, managed to a regimen of old world biodynamic farming practices, Tarraford delivers a magnificent harvest of Rhone styled Shiraz each year. Redolent with licorice, pepper and meats, pursing dark, cherry oak tannins and the astringency of wild bramble, its herb infused palate supported by characuterie notes, sasafras and game.

There's a confident assuredness about Yarra Valley Shiraz but there's also the chiselled elegance of Rhone Valley varieties, Carignan and Grenache, grown, harvested and crafted in the old world way. An assemblage of choice blocks from the Sexton and Tarraford vineyards. A combination of hand picked grapes and whole bunches, treated to cold soak in separate vats and seeded for ferments, pressed at completion to dryness and gravity fed into a selection of Flarge and small oak barrels for a year an a half, assembled in the spring, racked and bottled without fining or filtration.

Sexton Vineyard is wonderfully intricate, exuding notes of wild blackberry, dried mushroom, mulberry bush and braised plum, cinnamon stick and sour cherry. The coolest slopes of Sexton are planted to five Pinot Noir clones, managed according to biodynamic principles, providing several threads of expression to weave into the final wine. Sexton's fruit focus and fine tannins are enhanced by a judicious treatment of Burgundy styled oak.

The Sexton family live in the middle of their eighty acre vineyard on the high north face of the Warramate Ranges, within the dress circle of Yarra Valley's most eminent estates. The vineyard is introducing organic practises with the express purpose of further distinguishing the site and improving grape and wine quality. An assemblage of Pinot Noir and Shiraz, treated to a traditional course of ferments and judicious term of oak, fashioned into an immensely satisfying, seamless yet complex and engaging, bucolic old world style.

In exceptional years, parcels of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot are separately fermented. The best lots are assembled into a multiple trophy winer named Harry's Monster and treated to an extravagant maturation in the finest oak. Very strong in primary fruit, generosity and mouthfeel, its ripe seed tannins are simply singing in its youth, showing exceptional balance on a long lasting finish.

The capriciousness of the hard to grow, early ripening Pinot Noir makes its expression of site all the more sublime. The winemaking at Giant Steps is holistic and closely micro managed, a particular objective is to enhance the natural microflora for the facilitation of indigenous fermentations in the winery. The Yarra Valley's cool, slow ripening aspects, afford Pinot Noir the time to develop its seductive labyrinth of aromas, showing bright red fruit notes underscored by earthy complexity.

From harvests of estate grown Cabernet Sauvignon, assembled off the salubrious Dominique Portet vineyards. The temperate seasons of Yarra Valley allow for complete ripening of fruit, components grown to climes further afield at Heathcote or the Pyreness encourage the development of fragrant pepper spice and the most graceful tannins. The lucky grapes are all hand picked, destemmed and very gently crushed, to be fashioned into a sublimely integrated accord, showing suppleness on the palate after an engaging nose of delicate perfumes.

The winemaking at Dominique Portet has one foot planted firmly in tradition and the other in the latest developments. It is ultimately an empathy for the grape and respect for the shared experiences of winemaking pioneers which drive the Portet wineworks, nestled amongst the flourishing vineyards of Victoria. It is from these propitious sites on the benign aspects of Yarra Valley, that Dominique Portet identifies auspicious parcels, so akin to the peerless quality of harvest that he husbanded during his childhood amongst the vines of Château Lafite.

André was Dominique Portet’s father, role model and mentor. The eigth generation in a distinguished lineage of vigneron, André raised Dominique amongst the world's most sacred vines during his tenure as manager at the illustrious Château Lafite-Rothschild. An assemblage of parcels Cabernet Sauvignon, hand picked and hand sorted from elite blocks in the Pyrenees and Yarra Valley, Andre can only ever be made from the most exceptional vintages.

Victoria makes world class Pinot Noir, Chandon have the resources to develop the best vineyards and to retain the finest sites. Fruit is predominantly sourced from two vineyards in the Upper Yarra, planted to altitudes of 250 metres, they yield a quality of Pinot Noir that's highly akin to her stately siblings in the old world. The task of the Chandon team is to preserve the eccentricity of Pinot Noir in an engaging and balanced wine, suitably endowed with generous fruit filled palate, laden with bucolic varietal charm, truffles and barnyard, cherry and rhubarb spice.

A consistently splendid Pinot Noir from a family operated Yarra Valley winery which continues to chalk up the most coveted accolades and awards. The staple Pinot on winelists aound Victoria's better restaurants for decades, a superb effort even by the estate's own exacting standards, it exhibits what pinotphiles refer to as the proverbial iron fist in velvet glove. Silken in texture, in bucolic Burgundian styling, a wonderfully food oriented red that mates so well with everything from gorgonzola to game sausage. Complex and exciting, it evolves in the glass.

From one of Yarra Valley's most scenic sites, parcels of intensely favoured Cabernet Sauvignon, picked off fully mature vines, are vinified alongside a harvest of succulent Yarra Valley Merlot. Diamond Valley know from the luscious Bordeaux styles, having shown well at the Melbourne Federation Square Peoples Choice awards. A seamless accord of Cabernet and Merlot, endowed with genteel tannins and splendid length, from a tiny winery that puts quality before quantity.

Many of the vineyards which have contributed fruit for the most memorable vintages of De Bortoli Pinot Noir, are now bearing fully mature vines twenty to thirty years of age. The finest of these sites are yielding harvests with a distinctive expression of site and a real sense of place. De Bortoli have treated the pick of the crop to a course of traditional winery yeast open ferments and judicious French oak maturation, to achieve a Villages style of provincial Pinot Noir, brimming with varietal virtue and old world pastoral grace.

Nebbiolo makes the most magnificent wines, complex and engaging, bold of tannin, effusive and eloquent, full of charm. De Bortoli have established a closely husbanded parcel of vine on a section of Dixons Creek vineyard, which emulates the fortuitous confluence of microclimes of Nebbiolo's spiritual home in Piedmont. Grapes are all hand picked and sorted into small open fermenters for three weeks of maceration, followed by fourteen months in 500 litres French oak butts. Brightly lit with graphite, mineral and spice, textural tannins in support of its plump, savoury fruits palate.

A detailed and defined, old world style of Syrah, eloquently perfumed and decidedly delicious, crafted from hand picked fruit grown to the original 1971 plantings at Dixons Creek in Yarra Valley. A striking wine of focus, excellence and concentration, articulating the opulence of a world class Shiraz. Meticulous hand sorting at harvest ensures that only grapes of the silkiest tannins and most refined fruit characters are included. A profound red wine to match with the finest gourmandise, red wine garlic braise or ripe Taleggio.

Stephen Shelmerdine never applies any pressure on his Pinot vines to perform. Handling fruit and wine by gravity, knowing when not to interfere, indigenous yeasts and a subdued use of oak, all help to render the style. The challenge is to preserve aromas and to let the palate form by itself. A pure, small batch Pinot wine, elegance and finesse are the defining characters, matched by fine texture and good structure. The result is subtlety over sunshine, terroir over intervention and delicacy over extraction, fashioned to be beautiful to drink.

From the illustrious De Bortoli property at Dixon's Creek, established almost four decades ago on the cooler, elevated climes of Yarra Valley. The natural endowments of the land and consequence of closely hand managed vines, achieves a bounty of the most exquisite Shiraz, treated to a combination of old world vinification techniques, whole bunch inclusions and boot treading, aged in well seasoned, large format oak. A generously layered wine that builds and builds on the palate, Aussie Shiraz of the most articulate bucolic charm and refined pastoral grace.

From the prestigious Dixon's Creek vineyards in Yarra Valley, hand crafted by the most innovative and progressive Pinot protagonist in Australia. Pinot Noir can be tricky to grow and to make into wine, De Bortoli take the greatest effort at developing deep flavours within the grapes as they ripen, while remaining in pursuit of judicious alcohol and congenial tannins. A richly textured, elegantly structured Pinot Noir, fashioned from elite vineyard parcels, a solid, Burgundy styled accord of savoury red fruit pectin, mineral and lithe spice.

A superb construct of Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, crafted from three estate parcels of fully mature, low yielding vines, planted 1987 to 1991 at Dixon's Creek. A highly regional expression of Cabernet, exhibiting profound varietal definition, bursting with dark bramble berry flavours, seasoned by a dusting of cedar and garnish of bushvine leaf. The Victorian of choice to accompany dry aged sirloin with grilled marrow, truffled mash and morelles.

Founded by the nation's most renowned wine industry savant, Coldstream Hills is as fastidious today under the stewardship of its highly respected winemakers, as it was in the halcyon days of the emergent Yarra Valley boutique wineries. Vintage conditions permitting, Coldstream Hills releases a special Reserve edition in excruciatingly restricted quantities, assembled from the most exceptional barrels of superior Cabernet Sauvignon. The intensive handling of this princely Cuvée includes the extravagance of new French oak ferments, followed by the luxury of extended maturation.

Coldstream Hills make the quintessential Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, gentle and exquisitely balanced, well developed and engagingly complex. Whole bunch stalkiness and refined French oak add structure and interest. A gamey, earthy proposition displaying all the requisite varietal characters, a stylish wine of intensity and velvet textures, brimming with punnets of ripe berry flavours. Elegantly medium bodied, lined with silky tannins, the Pinot Noir of choice to accompany gourmandise venison, braised hare or succulently roast duck.

From parcels of fruit grown to choice vineyards in the premiere viticultural districts of Victoria. A style of Shiraz that is distinctly Yarra Valley, by a prominent winemaking estate, to surpass all expectations of what can be expected from a bottle without a label. Dominated by bright varietal fruit and lovely soft tannins, a medium bodied red wine with an attractive colour, alluring bouquet and mouthfilling palate. Representing excellent value, having developed complexity after a spell of ageing, its ripe and ready to enjoy today with all good faire.

Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, grown to the higher altitudes of fine Yarra Valley vineyards, are deeply enthused by the extended growing seasons, brought about by cooler climes. Such slower ripening conditions encourage layers of intense flavours and varietal complexity. This unlabelled Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon articulates the influence of the region and skill of the winemaker. Outstanding value in a Cleanskin, an effusive wine of ripe varietal blackberry and cassis characters, gentle background oak and measured, disciplined tannins.

The cult and abstruse Cabernet Franc finds a new home away from home, among the verdant orchards of Yarra Valley. Completely destemmed grapes are treated to a long, slow indigenous yeasts ferment. An exhilarating Cabernet style, its bright cherry nose precedes a refined bramble palate, laden with fresh and vibrant berry flavours, perfect for succulent lamb recipes, a traditional rillettes of duck or artfully assembled, croute et aspic terrine.

It is the Bress way, that superior quality grapes should be treated gently and with minimal intervention, to be vinified in nothing but the finest new French oak. Low cropped viticulture is in large part, the raison d'être for such reverence, the wines of Bress are religiously handled in such a manner. The bucolic affability of Yarra Valley fruit, seamlessly coalesces with the more elegant and fragrant Macedon Pinot Noir, achieving a measured yet engaging and complex wine. A match to charcoal pork roast and marinated chicken grill.