Macedon Ranges & Sunbury, Australia

Despite a fairly raucous night at the Emeu Inn, I managed to get up early enough to squeeze in a run through Heathcote in the morning. Oddly enough, I "ran" into one of the winemakers from dinner the night before. Small town, I guess. A quick homemade croissant later, we were on the road again to the Macedon Ranges.


We arrived at Bindi a little more than an hour later. As we pulled in past the stone wall announcing the winery, we immediately saw a colony of kangaroos bouncing around in the vineyard. Before the car had stopped, I had the door open and was leaping out to scale the wire fence and chase them down for pictures. Jens was quickly right behind me. Tragically, this was the only rainy day we had and our shoes were soaked after this Roo Hunt. It was amazing, though. There had to be thirty or more of them!

We eventually had chased them all too far away so we headed up to the winery to meet Michael Dhillon, owner and winemaker for Bindi. No sooner did we say hello than I saw another group of kangas that I bounded off through the vines to hunt, leaving Michael during his introduction to the winery. Many pictures later and finally satiated with my Kanga experience, I returned to the group with Dawn (who tagged along this time) to learn about Bindi.

We hiked up into the upper parts of the vineyard some (still surrounded by kangaroos) with Michael so we could see the majority of the vineyard sprawling below. The vineyard is essentially broken into three parts and planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Michael is very interested in the quartz makeup of the soil and seems to be separating some of these vines and areas within the main vineyard breakdown as well. A true believer in the ground and "terroir", as well as vineyard expression, these wines truly represent their sense of place and marked one of the best visits we had on the trip for wine quality.

We did a little barrel tasting of some of the upcoming Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs, sampling different block components of the wines. They were nothing short of extraordinary and I'm pretty sure none of us were spitting, even at 10:30 am. I didn't take individual notes since we were moving fairly quickly through the barrel room, but I can unequivocally say that any bottle of Bindi that you pick up will not be a disappointment.


A real highlight of the visit was when Michael broke out a couple of bottled wines: the 2009 'Block 5' Pinot Noir and the 2005 'Original Vineyard' Pinot Noir. The 2005 was absolutely stunning! Burgundian mushroom aromas with earth, herbs, cola, vibrant red fruits and such depth. If I could get this bottle in the States, I might not ever drink another Pinot Noir. It's unlikely you can find this, but I know there was once some imported to some saavy places and sommeliers. You will not be sorry if you can get your hands on one.

Departing from Bindi, we made our way to Curly Flat, another Chardonnay and Pinot Noir producer. Despite a road that had been washed out from the massive rains striking Australia, we made our way on foot up to the winery where we were greeted with a glass of Pinot Grigio 2006 for our tour of the winery. While there is a rustic feel to the winery, there is also a sense of modernity to the technology and equipment. I love that there is a big influence on music as well. Adjacent to the table where we sat for lunch and tasting, there was a jam session setup, complete with drum kit and microphones.

The wines of Curly Flat were good, but fell a little in the shadow of Bindi. Personally, I found them to be a little too New World-y in style, with a heavier feel of oak, particularly on their 2008 Chardonnay which was rife with vanilla and spice over lemon and green pear. Of the four Pinot Noirs that we tasted, I liked the 2007 Curly Flat Pinot Noir best: slightly baked red fruits, mushroom and a touch of Burgundian earthen character, plushly textured with soft tannin and vibrant acidity; bottled unfiltered.







On my way out, the staff told me that I look like George Clooney. I don't know...









The last visit of the day was Craiglee. THIS was an experience. We arrived to find it was sheep shearing day. Pat Carmody, owner and winemaker, is more farmer than typical winemaker and appears to consider his wines as much a product of his land as anything else. We sat at a long wooden table, covered in spider webs (including the wine bottles opened maybe the day prior) and tasted an incredible amount of bottles from his cellar, back to 1995. Pat opened verticals of Shiraz, Cabernet and Chardonnay and poured them blind. The highlight of this tasting was the 1996 Craiglee Chardonnay that we all guessed to be perhaps as old as five to ten years. It was incredibly youthful and vibrant - hard to believe it was going on fifteen years. I also had the pleasure of observing a spider ensnare a fly in its web and then wrap it up before feasting on its blood - cool! Overall, this visit was more of an oddity and the wines were interesting, but less than consistent or amazing.


Wrapping up our excursion in wine country proper, we headed back into downtown Melbourne to check into the Grand Hyatt. We had to say goodbye to our amazing driver, tour guide and new friend: Brian Ingleson. I wish I could say that I was sad to be heading back into the city, but I was definitely growing tired of barrel rooms and ready for a little Aussie culture. And it was a refreshing feeling to know there would be no spiders in my room when I went to sleep.