A taste of vintage in Yarra Valley
I am seated with a few friends – mainly expatriate Sri Lankans from Melbourne – out on the deck of this winery restaurant, with a panoramic view of vineyards stretching out beyond the establishment’s well-manicured lawn and picturesque lake.
It is a glorious spring day and in the far distance we can see the rolling green hills of the Dandenong Hills – reminding me of the opening lines from Alain Paton’s Cry, The Beloved Country: ‘These hills are grass covered and rolling and they are lovely beyond any singing of it’.
Inspecting the vines at Yarra Valley
For the moment, however, our attention is focused not on the aesthetic appeal of this vista but on a more down to earth matter – to the Australian lady standing in front of us with a row of wine bottles and a stock of wineglasses neatly stacked on the table at her side.
Having visited Australia’s major tourist attractions such as the Uluru (Ayers’ Rock), the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney with its harbour bridge and famous Opera House and this week the sporting capital of Melbourne, we have decided to spend a few days exploring the Yarra Valley and its world famous wineries. Today we are paying a visit to one of these to experience something we have never had the chance to do in Sri Lanka. After all, when we were young, few people in Sri Lanka drank wine – except perhaps in that old childhood rhyme:
“Once upon a time
Seeya bivva wine
Aeka dakala aachchi amma
Dunna ekak payin!”
The Yarra Valley is the name given to the region surrounding the Yarra River which originates about 90 kilometres east of the City of Melbourne and flows towards the city to enter the sea at Port Phillip Bay. It is the oldest wine growing region in the state with over 80 wineries set in scenic countryside – places like Lilydale, Healesville, Coldstream and Yarra Glen. The first grapevines were planted in these parts at Yering Station way back in 1838 and these days the Yarra Valley is recognised as one of Australia’s chief cool climate wine producing regions. Many of the wineries here offer sales at the cellar door – with some of them also featuring restaurants, cafes, facilities for picnics and barbecues and even bed and breakfast type accommodation.
So today we have come with a group of friends to indulge in one of the great pleasures of winery visiting – the opportunity to taste before we buy some of the best vintages of the region.
The lady opens a bottle – this one is a Verdelho, a lively aromatic white wine that was originally brought to Australia from Portugal – and pours a little into the wine glasses for us to taste. Even those of us who are not wine connoisseurs hold the glass to our nose, give the glass a gentle swirl and then carefully raise it to our lips before we take a sip. After all, even though I am at heart a gamaya from Sri Lanka, I have to keep up appearances and not look as if I am doing this for the first time!
Thanks to the diversity of the climate and soil in this environment, the Yarra Valley is able to produce a range of classic wine varieties – from Merlot and Shiraz to Riesling and Chardonnay. Wineries such as Domain Chandon here produce high quality sparkling wines that equal or even surpass the best champagne – although they cannot legally label these products as ‘Champagne’ since that name has to be reserved solely for sparkling wines from the Champagne region of France.
In the 200 years since the birth of the Australian federation, the nation’s wine industry has grown from a few small plantings to an industry renowned throughout the world. It is one of the few countries that produces every one of the major wine styles and is today one of the main wine exporters in the world. Today the UK imports more wine from Australia than it does from France!
And Australians, not being inhibited by centuries of tradition, have been responsible for popularising some brash innovations such as paper-based wine casks (called “soft packs” – like the containers used for milk and fruit juice) instead of glass bottles – and screw-caps for wine bottles instead of the traditional corks.
But our attention at this moment is not on Australia’s record as a major wine producer or the contributions it has made to viticulture and oenophiles– but on the delightful Yarra Valley wines set out for our tasting pleasure.
We enjoy the experience – and my friends leave the winery having bought several bottles to take with them, so that they can continue to enjoy tasting these wines at leisure in the comfort of their own homes.
I am looking forward to helping them with this enjoyment!