Yarra Yering, Pinot Noir, 2021
Yarra Yering, Pinot Noir, 2021
- 75cl
- 13%
- Red Still
- Pinot Noir
- Organic
- Biodynamic
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
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Optimal drinking window: 2026 - 2034
Est. delivery in August, 2026
Yarra Yering is one of those names that commands quiet reverence in Australian wine. Founded by the late Dr Bailey Carrodus in 1969, it was among the first to prove that the Yarra Valley could produce Pinot Noir of genuine depth and elegance — not just by Australian standards, but by any standard. The 2021 vintage arrived after a cool, measured growing season that gave the fruit exceptional clarity and freshness, and this wine carries that in every sip.
In the glass, it's all restraint and precision: taut red fruit, earthy complexity, and a structure that's fine rather than forceful. The tannins are silky but present, and there's a cool-mineral quality that runs through the wine like a thread.
What the critics say:
"Some whole bunches, a gentle hand plunging twice a day and 10 months in barriques (30% new). The top-pointed pinot from the Yarra Valley at the 2022 Australian Pinot Challenge, Sarah Crowe is now making pinots at Yarra Yering that stand alongside the other more celebrated reds in the portfolio. Just so perfumed with its bouquet of red fruits, rose petals and mountain herbs. Great depth and flow on the palate. It's deceptive, too, in that as pretty and alluring as this is now, it's also finely structured and tensile. It will be fascinating to see how this matures and unfolds over the next few years."
"A lovely line, strawberry but not too sweet, a little bit of rose hip and pitanga berry. Polished carriage and poise. The fruit moves gracefully through the tannins, leaving a strong mid-palate presence which seems to settle in long after the finish. Beautifully modulated and very easy to love."
The estate vineyards sit on undulating hills in the Upper Yarra Valley at around 150 metres altitude, with grey sandy loam topsoil over a complex subsoil of clay and ironstone. The cool maritime influence from Port Phillip Bay keeps ripening slow and measured, preserving natural acidity and aromatic intensity. This combination of lean soils and long growing seasons is precisely what gives Yarra Yering Pinot its cool-climate precision and capacity to age.
The Yarra Valley is Victoria's most celebrated cool-climate wine region, sitting roughly an hour east of Melbourne. It divides broadly into a warmer Lower Yarra and a cooler, higher Upper Yarra, with the latter producing the most refined Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Unlike heavily regulated European appellations there are no strict rules on varieties or yields, which has allowed pioneering estates like Yarra Yering to define the region's identity through sheer quality rather than prescription.
The 2021 growing season in the Yarra Valley was defined by cool, drawn-out conditions that tested growers' patience but ultimately rewarded those who waited. A cold, wet spring pushed flowering late, reducing yields across the board, and the summer never really warmed up in the way the valley's warmer sites can coax out. The saving grace was a long, dry autumn that allowed fruit to hang and ripen slowly, building concentration without the panic of heat spikes. It is the kind of season that separates the careful from the careless.
The result is a vintage that leans into everything the Yarra does best: Pinot Noir with real definition and fine-grained structure, Chardonnay that is taut and precise rather than generous. These are not big, generous wines, and that is the point. They have the architecture to age. Most are drinking well now if you give them an hour in a decanter, but the better examples will reward patience until 2027 and beyond.
OUR GROWERS
Yarra Yering
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