Yarra (3) Tarrawarra
Website: https://www.tarrawarra.com.au/
It was a lovely sunny late-spring morning when I visited Tarrawarra’s Swallowfield vineyard with winemaker Sarah Fagan and viticulturist Chris Beard (pictured above).
This is a stunning site, with gently sloped vineyards fringed by trees. Tarrawarra have leased this for 10 years in 2023, and it supplements their estate vineyard of 23 hectares.
Swallowfield is a 12 hectare vineyard in Gembrook that was originally planted with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for sparkling wine. They were taking 100 tons off this site every year, and lots of people were buying the grapes, but it wasn’t an easy site to work. Uniquely for the Yarra Valley, the soils are decomposed granite.
Marc and Eva Besen purchased the what is now TarraWarra Estate in 1979 and planted the first 6 hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir back in 1983, with some encouragement from John Middleton of Mount Mary.
Back to Swallowfield. They took some crop, just 15 tons, in 2024 as a rejeuvenation project. I tried a range of samples from 2024, including some of the Swallowfield wines. With an altitude of 280 m at the top of the vineyard, it’s possible to do more fruit exposure here.
This vineyard is an exciting acquisition, and with it TarraWarra can keep on pushing the boundaries of their already excellent wines.
THE WINES
These are samples from tank of final blends.
TarraWarra Estate Chardonnay 2024 Yarra Valley, Australia
This is from the valley floor vineyards, and it’s original 1983 plantings plus some newer plantings. Fresh, pure and lively with bright lemon and pear fruit. Fruit forward in style with good energy. 92/100
TarraWarra Estate Southern Slopes Chardonnay 2024 Yarra Valley, Australia
Gin gin clone (cuttings from Chardonnay from Leeuwin Estate in Margaret River) on a south-facing slope. Lively and energetic with nice freshness. Stony and slightly mineral with pear, citrus and a hint of apple. Lovely energy here. 94/100
TarraWarra Swallowfield Chardonnay 2024 Yarra Valley, Australia
I10V1, 76 and 96v clones. This is from newer plantings. Complex, fine and mineral with nice spiciness. Good complexity and depth here, and this is fine and expressive. 94/100
TarraWarra Swallowfield Pinot Noir 2024 Yarra Valley, Australia
This is 70% D clone then 114 and 115 in newer plantings. All destemmed. Lovely fruit here. Supple, fine and elegant with sleek berry and cherry fruits. Has such fine balance and some prettiness, but there’s also adequate structure. 94/100
TarraWarra Estate Barbera 2024 Yarra Valley, Australia
Fruity and energetic with bright cherry and raspberry fruit, and some sour cherry on the finish. This has lovely weight in the mouth and a slight spiciness. I really like it. 93/100
YARRA VALLEY
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Oakridge
- 3 Tarrawarra
- 4 Jayden Ong Wines
- 5 Yarra Yering
- 6 Bobar with Tom Belford
- 7 Giant Steps
- 8 Mac Forbes
- 9 Rob Dolan
- 10 Timo Meyer
- 11 Luke Lambert
- 12 Other Yarra wines tasted
