So How Good are the Wines from the Yarra Valley?

I recently spent time in the Yarra Valley with friends and visited a number of the local wineries. The full details can be found in this Tour Diary. Whilst the Yarra has never been my favourite area, there is absolutely no doubt they makes some excellent Cabernet and some of Australia’s better Pinot. Although my expectation for finding a lot of high-quality, well-priced wines in the Yarra were not high, I still managed to come away from this trip feeling disappointed in my success, or in this case, lack thereof.

When I go to the Yarra, I have enough experience and nous to know that I'm not going to find big-blockbuster wines, nor am I expecting them; what I am expecting are elegant wines, which are clean, well-made, well-balanced and ripe. It is with this in mind that I tasted the wines.

In the last issue of the Wine Advocate, on the Yarra Valley, Robert Parker said, "This is Australia's most fashionable viticultural area as well as the Darling of their wine press. Its proponents (the provincial Australian wine press) argue that the climate and resulting wines come closest in spirit to those of Bordeaux and Burgundy in France. I'm not convinced. Located in Victoria, this is a cool-climate area outside Melbourne, and every major red and white glamour varietal is planted, from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Pinot Noir to Chardonnay, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. There is much more "sizzle" than substance for most wines from Yarra Valley."

If Robert Parker tasted the calibre of wines that I tasted, to a great extent I'm not surprised with his comments. In my case, although I only tasted 28 wines on this visit, and whilst I'm fully prepared to admit that this may not be a representative sample, I have tasted a lot more than that previously. In this latest experience, of the wines I tried, 28% of them were rated as Agreeable or lower, 54% were rated as Recommended and 18% were rated as Highly Recommended. To some extent, what is even more concerning is the lack of value found. Only one wine tasted rated **** for value. Over one third of them only scored ** for value.

These numbers speak for themselves, and I cannot ever remember tasting such a high proportion of either ordinary, and/or poor value wines; in any line up.

Yes, the Yarra Valley does have an excellent reputation but for the life of me I don't understand why. The first question I asked myself is how many high quality wineries are there in the region? According to Halliday's latest wine companion, there are currently hundred and twelve wineries in the district; and rather than inflicting my opinion on how many of these wineries are really good, I will let readers contemplate this question themselves, and come up with their own answer. My bet is it's not going to be a very high percentage. The second question I would ask myself, is how many of the wineries in the region consistently produce good quality wine? Once again, I will let readers think about the answer and come to their own conclusions.

Let's face it; it's rare to find really good wine that is inexpensive, so the fact that there is not a lot of this available in the Yarra Valley is almost business as usual. However, that does not explain why so many of the wineries have got delusions of adequacy in relation to the value of their products.

In some regards, the Yarra Valley and the Hunter Valley have the same foundation stone that enables them to survive economically, where any other areas that tried to pull off the same stunt would die a slow and agonising financial death. That foundation stone, of course, is the proximity to a major capital city and the area's ability to deliver tourists that don't necessarily know a lot about wine, but are not afraid to spend money.

On the positive side, in the $20-$30 price bracket there were some quite respectable Pinot Noir to be found. There are also some wineries with very pleasant vistas that are well set-up and are capable of serving an enjoyable lunch. And of course, I have a couple of good friends that live there so it's always a good excuse to visit the area.

Why Junkets Work

As rational as people may be, when they are flown halfway round the world at someone else's expense, have their accommodation and meals paid for, are entertained, and then receive presentations by their guests, it would be extremely difficult not to be impressed with what you are being told. After all, the people who are doing the talking are no longer just casual business acquaintances; they are your hosts, you are their guest, and the chances are, a bond and between host and guest, has started to develop.

Some members of the cork industry are extremely proficient at using junkets to create their own “cork champions” or if I wanted to be harsh, I would call them shills.

To see the latest result, you need look no further than Robin Garr, the man behind The Wine Lovers Community Discussion Forum (known as WLDG) and The Wine Lovers Page.

Prior to the trip, the story starts off with Robin stating, “I've never been one of the most ardent defenders of the natural cork, and I've rarely been loath to say so.” Robin goes onto say “So it's with mixed emotions that I leave Friday for a trip to Portugal as the guest of Amorim, the largest producer of quality natural corks for the wine industry. I'll spend a week touring the Amorim facilities, visiting the Porguguese cork forests, and, to my great pleasure, dropping in on a few historic Port houses for visits and tasting. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I will undertake this trip - and I'm sure will be wined and dined very nicely indeed - at Amorim's expense.”

By the time Robin returned to the US after his trip to Portugal, his attitude towards cork has changed. This article posted on his Wine Lovers Page almost looks like it could be a press release written by the cork company, but then they did pay for the trip so it would probably be rude to say anything negative about them. But it goes further.

Someone called Walt started a thread titled “Interesting Comments from a Winemaker.” In that post Walt said “Took a private tour of a winery in Virginia over the holiday season.  It was a great tour as the owner/winemaker spent 45 minutes discussing with me how all the equipment works, corks, wine styles, malo, ripeness, vinifera vs hybrids and why he makes so many sweet silly wines…..First, he says that the problem with corks will soon disappear and the answer will be NATURAL CORKS.  He claims the artificial cork industry is buried in lawsuits and most will die from this situation.  He also said that the screw caps have some problems of their own and result in a higher % of defective bottles than TCA.  This along with the lack of "romance" will eventually reduce the use of screw caps.  The final comment was that the cork industry has made significant strides in eliminating TCA and over the next few years it will be all but eliminated.  I certainly do not know if this is true but certainly would seem to make sense.  I find it hard to believe that we cannot eliminate a silly little bacteria.”

Now if I was completely cynical, I would possibly think that post was a Dorothy Dix but that would just be idle speculation so I won’t infer it. However, it is worth reading the thread and paying particular attention to Robin Garr’s pro cork comments. From my perspective, in response, a few facts are worth mentioning.

Firstly, just to repeat on point stated in the thread, Amorin is only one producer, and when you buy a bottle of wine you no idea of a brand of the cork used., so even if you believe Amorin’s claims, it's still playing Russian (cork taint) Roulette.

Secondly, these sorts of things have been promised before. On the 12th of November 2003, an article titled “What Chance Do We Have?” was published on Robin Garr's own site (it was also placed on TORBWine; I was the author of the article.)  The first paragraph of the article reads as follows “A few years ago respected Australia wine professional, James Halliday (as the guest of the cork industry) took a trip to Portugal to investigate current events. Halliday stated that prior to the trip he was very sceptical about the claimed advances being made by the cork manufacturers. However after the trip he had some very positive comments about the improvements being made.”

Does this look surprisingly familiar, possibly something else you've read very recently?

The cork industry have been promising to clean up their act and get rid of TCA for years, and I for one, will not believe it until I see the results. The opponents of screw cap regularly call for “proof” about that closure’s abilities, and what is good for the goose is good for the gander. It's now time for the cork industry as a whole, not just one isolated company, to supply independent proof of the claims they are making.

Third, even if cork taint is reduced or eliminated, the problem of random oxidisation is still a very real one and needs to be addressed.

For the record, I am not pro Stelvin or anti cork; I just want a seal that is not going to mess with the contents of the bottle.

Finally, if junkets did not achieve the objectives of the sponsoring organisation, they wouldn't bother doing them. Comments made by commentators that do not have vested interests, or who have not been seduced into believing the marketing departments unconfirmed claims by free junkets, have far more credibility.