Yeringberg Viognier 2019

Why is this Wine so Yummy?

Viognier is a notoriously inconsistent variety and can ripen at different rates within the same vineyard. The Yeringberg Viognier is picked over serveral, staggered tries in order to balance ripeness. The fruit is destemmed, crushed and transferred to old oak where it undergoes a completely wild fermentation. The final bottling comprises a careful barrel selection.

Learn more about this magical Victorian region with our Wine Bites article Getting Your Head Around the Yarra Valley.

About Yeringberg

“Yarra Valley pioneers, the de Pury family are renowned for wines of finesse and elegance that epitomise the finest the region can produce. Produced from some of the oldest vines in the valley, these are long-lived wines made in tiny quantities. Yeringberg makes wines from the low-yielding vines re-established on the heart of what was one of the most famous vineyards of the nineteenth century. In the riper years, the red wines have a velvety generosity of flavour which is rarely encountered, yet never lose varietal character, while the Yeringberg White takes students of history back to Yeringberg’s fame in the nineteenth century.”

James Halliday

Guill de Pury grew up beside the out-of-operation 19th-century winery in Coldstream, where a lack of interest in fine table wines had caused production to cease in 1921. In 1969, Guill and wife Katherine decided to replant the vineyard and start again, and gradually restored the reputation of this great Australian estate.

Guill has since handed over chief responsibility for the wines to daughter Sandra de Pury. Sandra initially worked as a chef in Hong Kong following previous experience in kitchens and a period of study in hotel management in Switzerland. She then enrolled in an MBA program at the university of Melbourne, during which she won a scholarship to the University of Chicago. This was followed by a five-year stint as a jet-setting problem-solver with a Melbourne-based management consultancy.

Eventually her family heritage caught up with her and she succumbed to the wine bug. She completed a degree in oenology on her way to becoming fourth-generation winemaker at Yeringberg, where she views her art as “the perfect combination of intellectual, physical and sensory engagement.”

What is particularly staggering about Yeringberg is that year after year they assert their mastery across all varieties, from whites to reds. Even though their flagship wine is their Cabernet, there is a good argument that every wine from Yeringberg flies the flag as a benchmark for the Yarra Valley.

The video below “A Rare Vintage” was filmed for the ABC Landline Program & reported by Tim Lee

In the Vineyard

The original vineyard was ripped out when the demand for Australian wine slowed to a trickle, however, the site was replanted in the 1970s and is one of the great sites of the modern Yarra.

In the Winery

Yeringberg practices traditional winemaking.

Viognier is a notoriously inconsistent variety and can ripen at different rates within the same vineyard. The Yeringberg Viognier is picked over serveral, staggered tries in order to balance ripeness. The fruit is destemmed, crushed and transferred to old oak where it undergoes a completely wild fermentation. The final bottling comprises a careful barrel selection.

About Viognier

The Viognier vines from Yarra Yering made their way from Château Grillet. I devoured my last bottle of 2001 YY Viognier at 16 years of ages a few months ago. We’d bottled it with sulphur levels on the high side, it had maintained the colour of a 5 year old wine, the straw character of aged Viognier was showing, and the colleague I was tasting it with saw notes reminding her of Château Grillet! Only 200L of this wine were made, and only when there was sufficient fruit to avoid detracting from the No.2 Shiraz Viognier and friends. Studying the Viogniers of Condrieu and Château Grillet was always a pleasure.

Studying the Viogniers of Condrieu and Château Grillet is always a pleasure. It’s a curious beast, often drinking beuatifully for a few years, going into a hole for 5-10 and then bouncing back with a new level of secondary, age related characters. Good Viognier has a heady perfrume, apricot, peach, spice, ginger, jasmine, flowers, citrus and beyond often used to describe it.

In Australia, as in Côte-Rôtie, we tend to see Viognier in blends co-fermented with Shiraz where it adds wonderful perfume, and texture to red wines like Yarray Yering’s Dry Red No.2,  Clonakilla’s, and, Serrat’s Shiraz Viognier.

As a white wine, the spectrum of styles it can make is extreme. Guigal makes two of the boldest version with the Cuvées ‘La Doriane’ and the incredibly rare dessert wine ‘Luminescence’. La Doriane breaks all the rules. I used 20ml of a bottle to analyse it.

The pH was 4.0 the titratable acidity 4.0. Normally you’d expect a white wine to have a pH 3.0 & 3.5 with a titratable acidity between 5.5-7g/L acid. This is where the extremes of texture comes out to play, the high pH and low acidity combined with the high level of phenolics in La Doriane give it an oily, almost unctuous,  yet still dry texture. The high pH renders any sulphur additions near useless, the fruit must have incredible depth and length of flavour, capacity to handle oxygen contact not to oxidise. It results in a wine so unique that it becomes, perhaps one of the easiest wines to name in a blind tasting.

Guigal have made a very specific set of winemaking choices.

At the other end of the spectrum, it’s possible to make a gently pressed, tank-fermented version that has fewer phenolics from the skins and returns higher acidity and freshness.

Then there’s everything in between.

One thing is certain, good Viognier will have an entrancing perfume, and, a wonderful texture!

Look out for Château Grillet, Goreges Vernay, Yves Cuilleron, André Perret and Guigal.

The 2019 Vintage at Yeringberg

“As the sun rises on 2022 and we prepare for a new harvest, we’re delighted to present the 2019 wines to the trade. That season was a weather rollercoaster, which resulted in a stunning set of wines. The wet spring and early summer set up the vines well  for strong growth, and our careful vineyard management kept the threatened fungal diseases at bay. January and early February were hot, the autumn was more comfortable and the fruit ripened in a steady sequence. It is a vintage characterised by moderate yields, very healthy fruit and balanced wines, less opulent than 2018 but more forward than the 2017 wines. We hope that you and those around you will enjoy our latest work.”

Sandra de Pury

Where in the World is Yeringberg?

Yeringberg is located in Coldstream, in the Yarra Valley.