Dhillon by Bindi Glenhope Chardonnay 2023

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

About Bindi

A Bit of Bindi on the Side – An interview with Michael Dhillon of Bindi Wines

Michael Dhillon’s been around the block. Mostly Block 5 & a few others that Bindi planted moons ago. After over a generation of growing grapes and making wines, Bindi, has the reputation of one of Australia’s great Pinot and Chardonnay producers. They aren’t resting on their laurels!

New high density planting are in the ground and will soon bare fruit. The ever present desire to achieve the most delicious wine possible still beats stong in his heart.

Vigneron: Michael Dhillon

Michael was born in the town of Gisborne (where his family on his mother Kaye’s side have been since 1853) , 55kms north west of Melbourne, and grew up at Bindi, a 170 hectare farm just outside the township. Today he and his family produce chardonnay and pinot from their vineyard at Bindi which Bill and Michael Dhillon established in 1988.

Michael served as assistant winemaker to Stuart Anderson from 1991 until 1998 when he assumed full responsibility. Michael learned his craft working with Stuart as well as experiencing vintages in Europe, where he spent time with the Champagne house of Jean Vesselle in Bouzy, with Alain Graillot in Croze-Hermitage and four vintages in Tuscany at Tenuta di Valgiano. During the mid 1990s Michael also worked with John Wade over parts of three vintages when John was establishing Howard Park Winery. Michael’s passion for Burgundy has seen him visit over 100 different domaines over two decades.

The Dhillon Label

This new DHILLON label is a lovely evolution and home for wines that are other than Bindi. Pyrette remains a stand alone single label for delicious, medium weight, fruity and earthy Shiraz. Just the one wine. The new label allows us to enjoy making and offering small parcels of wines as time and inspiration allows. Initially three wines have been made from the fabulous Col Mountain vineyard on the Mount Camel Range in Heathcote; a fragrant, dry and fresh 2021 Grenache Rosé, a berry and spicy 2020 Grenache red and a complex and layered 2015 Shiraz. Fun and games.

The label is a thoughtful derivation of relevance. The DHILLON fonts and the butterfly (Bindi means butterfly in some First Nations language) evolve and transform, symbolising the shifting of eras and activities. The butterfly is endemic to India, Australia and south east Asia. It is found in Delhi, India’s capital, a name that evolved from Dhilli, derived from Dhillon. Ken Cato, friend and identifier of storytelling images, has created this subtle and beautiful label.

As always, the wines are deeply personal and transcend fermented grapes and bottled beverage. The first wines come from Bernadette and Colin Neate’s much loved vineyard that sits on a high and rocky outcrop. It’s a very dramatic and individual site with pockets of vines established across the slope. In the late 1980s we got to know Colin and Bernie as they managed Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the Macedon Ranges. In 1998 they moved to Heathcote to establish the Colbinabbin Estate vineyard for John and Jenny Davies and a decade later established their own vineyard. Transformation over the decades and here we all are today, friends and colleagues enjoying new projects together, with eyes to the future. Plenty of names, a smattering of tasty wines and lots of good stories.

The Col Mountain Vineyard is a very special site that stamps its fruit and wines with great personality. We have been making shiraz from these blocks for seven vintages and it’s about time we released some! The wines require several years ageing to soften and we have been able to do that patiently in our cellar and now it’s time to offer them up.

In the Winery

The 2023 season

The fourth year of the cool and the damp has an undeniably admirable stamp. How could this be? Something precious has risen above its origins and holds an increasingly exciting and somewhat head scratching promise. It’s a tough one to figure for the filigree found us rather than us finding it, strive as we did. The spring and early summer were diabolically damned with damp as those months overflowed the dams and underwhelmed our expectations. Bastard months, one after the other. Vignerons were stuck in the La Niña rut. Bogged even, rutted to near ruin by rain. Crops were downed by the downy, savior sought in systemic resorts while the weeds grew as fast as did our weariness from the worry. Oh buoy, hope almost drowned by the deluge, a vintage nearly washed away. But not quite!

In one day it turned. Christmas Eve presented sunshine and the broken records of rain ceased. The spin cycled to dry, it was a midsummer season-saving run of warmth and calm and respite. Without it surely we’d have been doomed? But then the overly arid threatened and we questioned this opposite stress; too dry? Not quite. La Niña wasn’t done. The teary damp was resurrected over Easter, a viticultural insurrection no less, and the humidity pushed hard again through April. Lo and behold, quite ridiculously so, the vineyards and the wines have pushed forward and somehow worked out.

And now?

In February we bottled the 2023 Bindi Kostas Rind Chardonnay, 2023 Bindi Quartz Chardonnay and 2023 Bindi Dixon Pinot Noir. They have developed really well in barrel and are pure, complex, vibrant and harmonious. They will live and drink well for many years. It’s very pleasing, very rewarding, very reassuring. Site and careful management, attentive cellar work.

The five remaining 2023 Bindi Pinots in barrel are putting on weight and developing further subtle complexity. They are better than they ought to be; small crops with each site speaking clearly and deliciously. I expect they also will go into bottle well, in July.

We did nothing different with the viticulture and winemaking. Lots of hard work by hand, the usual gentle winemaking. I would say that we made some rapid decisions to pick. For example, at lunchtime on Easter Monday I was concerned about the continuing humid weather and the ability of some blocks to hold on so the next day we had 50 people on-site picking and processing. It was a big call to friends and family and our team, it was the right call to capture the purity and balance. Other cooler blocks that were less humid and were historically known to be able to hang on were left for up to 17 days extra to gain ripeness. All these decisions proved to be the correct ones and the opportunity of the challenging season was maximised.

Where in the World is Bindi Wines?

Bindi is in Gisbourne within the Macedon Ranges, one of Victoria’s cool climate wine regions. Look to the north and a little west of Melbourne.