2023 was an old fashioned vintage, in that we started bringing in the grapes from mid March. More common in the past 15 years is the creeping of the harvest date into February. The growing season was pretty mixed, with a wet wet spring so not ideal for the flowering with the pinot noir particularly hit. Tiny berries on tiny bunches. But they were lovely berries and the resulting wine is one of our best. The us just not that much of it!
Plush with spicy fruits, savoury intertwined with terrific tannins. With 20 months in bottle already it is a lovely right now and has many years ahead. Just 135 doz

As usual the composition of the Amelia blend is vintage specific, every year the various varieties produce more or less grapes so that the Amelia is slightly different every year. With the grapes coming from just our single 10 acres, each year the proportions vary. The 2023 Amelia is approximately 48% cabernet sauvignon, 43% cabernet franc merlot and 9% petit verdot. We think this is a pretty special Amelia.
Approachable now with its complex mix of black berries, generous weight and those lovely long tannins that we get from the low yielding 60 plus year old vines. 

OPEN DAYS 2023
Saturday 7th and 14th October 10am to 4pm
​Maryann 0412 589 490
,

2023 marked the 60th year since the first vines were planted. Quite an amazing milestone.

A bit of history

The beautiful site was selected in 1963 by Reg for its east facing slope, ensuring that the morning light would  shine gently on the vines. At the time this area of outer Melbourne was a mixture of orchards, bush and grasslands. After all - it was outside the metropolitan area!

The side benefit of the block of 12 acres was that it was near to Reg's Mount Waverley legal practice so if needed he could dash home from the office to look after the ferments. In buying the land he was aware that the suburbs would start to sprawl and eventually potentially overtake the vineyard. And whilst the houses have arrived down the road, suburbia has happened around us. With the 1971 rezoning of many thousands of hectares of land around us, and including us, to a Green Wedge overlay, the area has remained undeveloped. And that is how we have been able to continue for 60 years.

It's a great story, an amazing history and quite the surprise to many people who simply can't believe we exist where we do.
It is always fabulous to be able to host people at the vineyard on our open days. For those who are from interstate, we can at times accomodate a visit for you, so let us know if you are in town.

The wines on release this year are the current vintages. 2022 Isabella Chardonnay, 2021 Lily Pinot Noir, 2021 Amelia Cabernet Merlot  and the 2021 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot. Unfortunately, no museum wines this year 

2022 Isabella Chardonnay

As a fantastic follow on from the 2021 Isabella, we rather like this wine!
It has an intensity of flavour, but with structure and at the same time a delicate integrated line of control. The old vines are extremely low yielding -  some vines might only produce ten bunches - however they are glorious tight bunches with delicious tasting skins that give the wine a depth of flavour without being blousy. 
Ferment is not too fast, not too slow so as to capture the fruit, no malolactic fermentation and ageing is largely hands off except for careful barrel monitoring. It is drinking beautifully now, however it will age very well for many years to come.
Just four barrels made

2021 Lily Pinot Noir

The 2020 -2021 growing season was a gentle one, with no real surprises and whilst the bunches were still smaller than usual, they were little handfuls bursting with flavour.  Harvest started in early March after a cooler than average February,  perfect for ripening especially with the cold nights. After destemming the bunches, the grapes are transferred to small open fermenters where we hand plunge a couple of times a day. The 2021 pinot had on average 10 to 14days on skins, depending on the individual vineyard blocks and fermenters.
Then into barrel for 10 months before bottling. 
With nearly 18 months in bottle the rich yet elegant Lily is really starting to show itself. Beautiful fruit flavours and tannins that we really love to see - balancing the wine to the finish.
2021 is really a lovely Lily!
Only 5 barrels made

2021 Amelia Cabernet Merlot

The 2021 Amelia is a typical Wantirna cabernet blend. The fruit is ripe, the tannins long and the palate reflects the high quality of Cabernets from this area of Australia. For us it is reminiscent of the 2015 and 2017 - ripe but not too much and with incredible ageing potential. Having a reasonably cool January and February allowed the grapes to ripen without stress and has given the wine a backbone of juicy berries flavour and crumbly soft but drying tannins.
In a tasting line up just before bottling, Reg (who is quite restrained with his superlatives), said this is one of the best we've made. 
Certainly it is a wine with tremendous immediate appeal and will definitely age very well 
Just 5 barrels made

2021 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot

 The beauty of the later ripening varieties such as these is that during the critical evolution to full ripeness, the autumn like weather has begun. This gives them warm sunny days but those beautiful cool to almost cold nights. Wonderful ripening temperatures. The berries can hang on the vines, not getting so much more sugar ripe necessarily, but allowing those soft yet grainy tannins to develop.  Tannins really make the backbone of these wines. The wine is in 100% new French oak, and has been bottle aged for 18months before release. The fruit is superb, the oak and grape tannins are integrated and it is just a rather delicious blend of grapes.

As usual just 1 barrel, 289 bottles made.

OPEN DAYS 2023
Saturday 7th and 14th October 10am to 4pm
​Maryann 0412 589 490

When asked ‘what do you do?’ in terms of occupation, the most common answer we use is “I’m a winemaker”. Which of course is true, but probably the correct answer should be that we are grape growers. After all, the winemaking part of it all is over and done with fairly swiftly and the remainder of the year is spent looking after vines, obsessing about the weather and aiming to balance and manage our soils.

The vineyard is where we have seen the biggest changes over the past decades. Early notebooks show the cabernet sauvignon grapes being picked in late April to early May, today it is unusual for the cabernet sauvignon to be picked any later than the first week of April. Pinot noir is the same - from the past start around 15th March, to today when we often start at the beginning of the month.
From a grape grower’s perspective, it’s pretty hard to argue against the fact that climate change is real. Across the world vineyards are continually assessing their vineyard practices, and we are no different.

Our trellising has evolved, allowing for more shade for the grapes so as to avoid sunburn. Twenty years ago these same vines would have potentially had some fruit zone leaves removed so as to get the sun into the bunch zone, to the ripen the berries and tannins. That practice is rare these days.
Our mulch use and management of  indigenous grasses under the vines not only helps to maintain moisture, but also acts to prevent heat from the sun into the root zone. Tweaking the vineyard inputs to move with the climate is as important as fermentation cap management in the winery. As many have been saying for years, what happens in the vineyard reflects the starting point of how good the final wine might be.

The last few seasons have been difficult, not so much in a management way, rather in the things that were out of our control. The 2021 - 2022 season was so hopeful in the spring, with just beautiful even bud burst and really great early potential bunch numbers. But the windy, wet weather during flowering was no friend to pinot noir, and yet again we have had a small production year. As they say, fantastic quality though…. Thankfully chardonnay and the cabernet family fared better and produced some of the loveliest bunches we have seen.

As many of our long time customers know the vineyard was planted in 1963. It has had a few small reworks over the early years but for the most part the vines are around 45 - 55 years old. Some are still flourishing, others have been reworked and after a 2 year mild slumber are back to almost full production. However a small plot of chardonnay and merlot vines that never really lived up to their potential, always frustrating us in what they could be and never really producing the sort of yield that we thought reasonable. We tried compost, did petiole and soil tests to see if they were lacking nutrients but in the end it was decided that they had to go.

So we have left the soil sit for a year and are now preparing it for replanting in October. Many a hole will be dug, filled with compost and the new vine planted. Then more mulch to help the vine thrive and to encourage the roots to go deep into the clay to remain self sufficient for water in the coming years. Then a few more years until we see the fruit....

On another note, we thought that our customers would like to know about the December 2021 passing of one of Wantirna Estate’s founders - Bertina Egan. Many of you would have met Bertina at our open days or had correspondence from her over the years.


The wines on offer this year are the 2021 Isabella Chardonnay, the 2020 Lily Pinot Noir, 2020 Amelia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and the 2020 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot.

All the wines are in very small supply.

Orders will be filled on receipt of purchase.

Please order either via the website  or by filling in the order form. click here
Order forms can be scanned or photographed and then emailed or sent to via SMS to Maryann 0412 589 490
.

Please note for those who would like to plan a visit -  the open days are a little earlier this year -
Saturday October 1st and Saturday October 8th 10am to 4pm



2021 Isabella Chardonnay

A beautiful year for all the wines, and the chardonnay was really gorgeous. Just a tiny amount made again, from grapes that were harvested in two batches, allowing us to capture different flavours from the season. There was a mix of weather across the ripening time, allowing for some golden ripened fruit on the sunny side of the rows, with lovely crunchy acid on the more shaded aspects. Chardonnay is such a resilient variety, the roots go deep into the ground here and even in dry years we wouldn’t think they needed any water - the vineyard is largely unirrigated.

The 2021 Isabella shows the season beautifully. It is not a tutti fruit wine, rather the tertiary flavours that you see in the wines of Europe  
Price $80

2020 Lily Pinot Noir

We decided to hold back the release of the 2020 Lily until now, to allow it to really bounce back from bottling and develop some of the lovely Lily flavours that we know this wine to show after some time. Mostly the delay in release was done for restaurant wine lists as we see this wine develop so well after 15 months in bottle. The wine has lived up to what we expected and is beginning to really show just how lovely Pinot Noir from this place in the world can be. Rich, without bigness, flavours of all the red fruits and berries. Soft tannin and filling out to be a beautiful medium bodied red wine. Must say we are delighted to have taken the step to give the wine a little longer before release.
Unfortunately just two barrels made, so in very short supply.
Price $80


2020 Amelia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
The quality of the cabernet family grapes was probably the highlight of the year that was 2020! Unfortunately, the quantity was really quite horrible and just two barrels were made. The composition was approximately 68% cabernet sauvignon, 17% cabernet franc / merlot and 15% petit Verdot. So small was the petit verdot crop that we had to knock the end out of a barrel to ferment the grapes in!
The 2020 Amelia is a refined wine, balanced in weight and with really lovely tannins.
A terrific example of Yarra Valley cabernet.
2 barrels only made
Price $80


2020 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot
The grapes for the Hannah were harvested 25th March, on a beautiful cold, but sunny autumn morning. The grapes were de-stemed then transferred to the open fermenters, before a few days of cold soaking. When this option for a pre soak is available - on a cold harvest morning - we really like to do this. The pre - ferment maceration tends to draw out lovely colour and begins the gentle extraction of the tannins from the skins.
The 2020 Hannah has a little more cabernet franc than merlot. Cabernet franc is such an attractive variety, and offers beautiful fruit flavours to the more savoury merlot. We bottle the Hannah after 12 months in barrel to capture these characters and then bottle age the wine for 15 months before release.

As usual, just one barrel, 288 bottles made.
Limit 3 bottles per person
Price $140


MUSEUM RELEASE

2011 Amelia Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot and 2011 Hannah Cabernet Franc Merlot
So 2011 was a wet year, one that was considered a lesser year. But often the difficult years is when something needs to be whisked out of the winemakers’ hat and really ‘make the wine’. And to then give the wine some time to evolve.
The 2011 Amelia and Hannah are wines that possibly sit in this category. Many of the journalists simply wrote off the vintage, but really without taking into account what small, real hand - winemaking winemakers might be able to produce.  We were confident that both wines would develop into a lovely wines with some time.
So we held back a little and we  think  they are  drinking really well right now.


And since we have tiny amounts of the 2020 Amelia, this museum release might go a small way towards bolstering our wine offer this year.
Price Amelia $100
Hannah $160

Well an unusual thing happened a few weeks ago - an enormous clean up! So not just the cellar was sorted out but also Reg's work bench, however one had slightly more interesting bounty than the other.....
In doing so we opened a few of the old, old wines and there was plenty to be surprised and a bit impressed by. This photograph was a bracket of pinot noir (pre Lily naming days). The specially labelled bottle for the launch of Wivine de Stoop's 'A Pleasure of the Table' cookbook was certainly a pleasure. The 1975 was sadly corked, but the 1978 and 1981 were both looking pretty good for their age considering the lack of  bottling line technology available in those days. The 1977 was tasted again a few days later and was delicious and at 38 years old that's not too bad at all - does anyone still have some?
Unfortunately we only have the odd bottle of some of the early wines left but we are enjoying gradually sifting through the stash and cataloguing anything worth keeping.

So we thought you might be interested in hearing about how they tasted and also seeing the some of early labels. 

As for younger wines, our annual newsletter will be sent out in September, so please let us know, by following this link, if you have had a change of contact details.

 Open Days 2015
This year's release days have been set aside for October as follows:
Saturday 16th October
Saturday 23rd October
both days 10am to 4pm.

On tasting will be the very (again) short supply 2014 Isabella chardonnay and 2014 Lily pinot noir. As well as the 2013 Cabernet wines - the Amelia cabernet merlot and the Hannah cabernet franc merlot.

 

A snapshot of vintage 2015 -  or #v15 as you'll see it in all the social media tags such as Instagram (wantirna_estate) and Twitter @wantirnaestate.

Like every vintage it is a story of doing one thing, then reversing it. Nets on, then nets off. Clean the equipment, dirty it, clean it up. Empty barrels, refill them and so it goes.

The nets went on early January because it doesn't matter how sour those grapes are, the birds still seem to want to sneak in early and start eating. The fruit so far has been beautiful after such a mild summer. All the chardonnay and pinot is picked and processed and now in barrel or tank finishing up. Probably we will start the merlot and cabernet franc early next week, with the cabernet sauvignon to follow quite soon after with the 4 rows of petit verdot to be the last to get picked. 

So the grapes have been terrific, the quantities a tiny bit better than last year but still a bit low unfortunately but that is life in a vineyard that is ageing. More inter planting of young vines to be done this winter

As usual the Hannah cabernet franc merlot has sold out quickly from the winery. This year the 2013 Isabella chardonnay has also sold out for our mail order customers. It will be available in very small supply (some time this week) from the usual independent wine retailers and in some restaurants. The 2013 season did produce small crops, and unfortunately the 2014 was much the same. Great quality but tiny quantities. We are hopeful that 2015 will be back to the 'usual' crop levels.

Some nice words from Campbell Mattinson - The Winefront

Wantirna Estate Hannah 2012 Posted on 31 October 2014. 
by Campbell Mattinson

One barrel. 50/50 blend of merlot and cabernet franc. Yarra Valley. Tasted at the winery. My notes ended up being fairly brief.

Sensational wine. Autumnal, pure, spicy, tobacco and pencils, currants and violets. Long strings of firm tannin fully integrated with the acid and flavour. Will age superbly. That’s how it’s done.