Day 7 – Heathcote & Macedon Ranges;

We travelled up to Yabby lake (who produce wines from Mornington – but also have ‘Heathcote Estate’ in Heathcote ),  winemaker Tom Carson was supberb in showing us a range of wines they have in the UK including their ‘Red Claw’ range (the pinot is remarkably good for its price point) their Yabby lake range was also most remarkable – with top end wines in a selection of single block wines – which were stunning.

Again as seems the norm now we completed some barrel tasting – fantastic seeing the different clones and noting how they differed from the same clones grown elsewhere.

We also tried the Heathcote Estate Shiraz; heathcote being one of the most talked about regions for Shiraz of the past few years.

We then travelled for a few hours to Bindi in the Macadon ranges – this small producer, very much famed for excellent wines, but nothing could ever, and I mean ever prepare you for a visit here – you can really hear the ground has almost its own heart beat and Mike is very much listening to, understanding the lye of his land perfectly from the ancient volcanic flows shown in the this picture:

To the quartz based soils … which are here:

Followed by an amazing tasting; the pinots were stunning but the winner hear (which had the entire group wow’ing over it) which was the run away success was his Chardonnays – the Quartz being one of the finest chardonnays I have ever tried … think of Lobster salad – with Samphire salad & a lemon & lime mayonnaise – then think of a crisp white wine to match … forget my love of helping to guide people with reference to the traditional classics … forget the classics – this is a new classic – perfectly pristine – with fantastic poise on the palate – citrus & minerals in perfect harmony (are you getting the idea I liked this one?) ,…. This along with Mac Forbes & Ocean eight will make some fantastic seafood wines for us at Estbek!

We were kindly given a superb dinner of as Mike would describe as ‘Lamb and leaves’ which is the most understated way of putting this superb meal. I think this visit will live in all the groups mind for a very long time!