By Callum Ludwig
A wine made from grapes grown in Gladysdale has taken out a prestigious award at the Melbourne Royal Wine Awards.
Handpicked Wines’ 2022 Wombat Creek Vineyard Yarra Valley Chardonnay took out the François De Castella Trophy for Best Young White, as well as the Best Chardonnay and Best Victorian Chardonnay to boot.
Chief winemaker Peter Dillon said it was an absolute buzz winning the award.
“We have always thought that those Wombay Creek Chardonnays are an amazing wine, but I suppose to win that top white trophy at the Melbourne show, which is effectively one of the biggest wine trophies in the Australian wide-circuit, was not necessarily something I anticipated so t was pretty amazing,” he said.
“From memory, there’s over 3000 entries and about one-third of those are chardonnay, so to be seen as the Best Chardonnay out of that many entries, we’re really quite elated by that win and the recognition and kudos for that wine and that site.”
Handpicked Wines took over operation of the Wombat Creek vineyard on Hazeldene Road in 2016, acquiring it from David and Fae Griffith
Mr Dillon said the location is part of what helps the wine stand out.
“The Upper Yarra always has wines, particularly chardonnays, with lovely clarity, expression and finesse but I think on top of that, the vines were planted in the late 80s so they’ve got some real vine age,” he said.
“It tends to give just this lovely concentration of flavour and layers of flavour in the wine so you end up with that subtlety of the Upper Yarra but also that real power and persistence of flavour,”
“It’s great that that original vision from them (David and Fae Griffith) has paid off.”
All in all, Handpicked Wines walked away with three gold medals, three silver medals and six bronze medals from their 11 vineyards while the winery was also nominated as a finalist for Champion Victorian Winery, ultimately losing out to Yarra Yering.
Mr Dillon said he thinks the spread of wineries and their scale in the Yarra Ranges is a great thing.
“That’s probably what’s nice in many ways about the wine industry in general, but certainly the Yarra Valley, you see a real range of different people, approaches, businesses and scales and over the years that success has been well shared across the board,” he said.
“It’s not easy growing grapes in the Upper Yarra with the recent weather patterns of the La Nina and it’s quite a high-pressure site with the elevation, rainfall and moisture,”
“For us, that’s the real payoff in terms of investing that time and effort to grow those grapes.”
