Yabby Lake is a star of the Mornington Peninsula, making some of Australia’s best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay
Website: https://www.yabbylake.com/
Yabby Lake is one of the most highly regarded of the Mornington Peninsula wineries. This is cool-climate Australia, and the focus is on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
The vineyard goes back to 1998 when the Kirby family planted in Tuerong, in the northern part of the region. Robert and Mem Kirby had been looking for the ideal site for a while. They are the owners of theme park and film production company Village Roadshow (https://villageroadshow.com.au/about-us/introduction). They have planted 50 hectares of vines, with the emphasis on Pinot Noir (25 hectares) and Chardonnay (14 hectares). In 2022 they also bought a vineyard in Tasmania.
Winemaker and general manager Tom Carson has been here since 2008, following a 12 year spell heading up Yering Station in the Yarra. He’s a talented and thoughtful winemaker, and under him the wines have flourished. Tom has a particularly strong reputation for Pinot Noir, and has done several vintages in Burgundy. The wines are made in an impressive facility that opened with the 2015 vintage.
Tom uses wild ferments on all the wines, and has moved from barrels to puncheons (500 litres). For Chardonnay, full solids are used, and no malolactic fermentation. He’s a particular fan of the Mendoza clone, but says you need to get the picking right.
For Pinot Noir, Tom varies whole bunch quite a lot depending on the vintage. ‘We want to use as much whole bunch as we can, but without having the wines dominated by whole bunch characters: herby, celery, geranium, compost, anything too planty,’ he told me when I visited in 2017. ‘We try to understand the fruit and the intensity in the fruit. In 2014 we didn’t use any because it was a cool, cloudy summer and the stalks were an iridescent green with strong flavours. 2015 was quite a different vintage and we used 10-50%, with some batches 100%. 2016 was a good year for stalk too. We try to understand which blocks and clones it works with, but it’s also highly dependent on the vintage. I hate overly green Pinot. But when the stalks work they add structure, beautiful aromatics and florals. It’s all about balance.’
He has some oak fermenters as well as stainless steel. ‘The oak vats maintain temperature better at the end of ferment, so tick out evenly and slowly. Stainless is more susceptible to a cool night. The tannins out of the wood seem a bit finer, but we haven’t done anything other than anecdotal quick tastes in the lab.’
Yabby Lake Red Claw Chardonnay 2021 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Lovely aromatic, flinty, limey nose. So fresh and energetic with lime and pear fruit, and nice acidity. Pure. 92/100
Yabby Lake Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2022 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Good concentration here, with real intensity to the lemony fruit. There’s a hint of pineapple. Lively and multidimensional with lime, some spice, and good acidity. 95/100
Yabby Lake Red Claw Pinot Noir 2022 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Quite pale in colour. Fine aromatics of herbs, some ginger, cherry and raspberry. Lovely texture to the fruit with a purity and a nicely sappy edge. 93/100
Yabby Lake Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2022 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Textural and fine with strawberry, red cherry and some appealing herbal hints. There’s some silkiness on the palate, with spicy framing. A light, elegant style. 94/100
Yabby Lake Block 2 Pinot Noir 2022 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Such depth and texture here with fine spicy framing to the sweet cherry and raspberry fruit, with a touch of wild strawberry. This combines elegance and concentration with an amazing mouthfeel. 95/100
Yabby Lake Block 1 Pinot Noir 2018 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Energetic and vital with some sappiness and nice green hints. Pure and silky with a twist of ginger and mint around the fringes. Sleek style. 95/100
Yabby Block 5 Pinot Noir 2018 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Nice tension here with some blood/iodine as well as fine red cherries. Silky and expressive with a sappy edge to the palate. So fine. 94/100
Older notes from February 2017:
Yabby Lake Red Claw Chardonnay 2016 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Bottled in December. Lovely fresh textural wine with bright pear and apple fruit. There’s a nice fresh lemony drive here, with a bit of grapefruit, too. Has some freshness with lovely fruit purity, and maybe even a hint of mint. 92/100
Yabby Lake Single Vineyard Chardonnay 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Lovely freshness with subtle tangerine and pineapple notes along a pure citrus drive. Fine, pithy, intense and fresh with a juicy, lemony core. Tightwound and concentrated with lovely acidity and presence. 93/100
Yabby Lake Single Block Release Block 6 Chardonnay 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
All Mendoza clone. Very detailed and bright with a herb and cabbage edge to the direct pear and citrus fruit. There’s a slight saltiness here, with great focus. Briney and intense with lovely freshness to the wine. Long, tangy, mineral finish. 96/100
Yabby Lake Red Claw Pinot Noir 2016 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Beautifully sappy, fine red cherry fruits nose. There’s a sweet herby character here that’s really attractive. Pure, fine, aromatic red fruits. Supple and sweet with nice finesse. Generous, plus red fruits here with a lovely texture to the fruit. This is rounded, fresh and berryish and very easy to drink. 92/100
Yabby Lake Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Sweetly aromatic with some fine herbs and spices, and a hint of cedar. Lovely density of red berry and cherry fruits on the palate with good structure and concentration. Has layers of flavour with a lovely mid-palate density and nice fruit weight. Supple with a good combination of sweet and savoury. The tannins are there, but they have plenty of flesh on them. 94/100
Yabby Lake Vineyard Single Block Release Block One Pinot Noir 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Fine herbal notes, black cherries, raspberries and smoke on the nose. Supple red berry fruits palate with some fresh, green sappy notes. Has nice structure here, with some savouriness, and a crunchy raspberry finish, as well as some Campari notes. Nice finesse, with potential for development. 94/100
Yabby Lake Vineyard Single Block Release Block Two Pinot Noir 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Brooding liqueur-like raspberry and cherry nose. Generous but well defined palate with smooth, pure red cherry and raspberry with an expansive silky mouthfeel, showing layers of tannin and textured fruit. Very pretty but serious with it. 95/100
Yabby Lake Vineyard Single Block Release Block Six Pinot Noir 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Sleek black cherry nose with some redcurrant hints. Floral aromatics, with some liqueur-like richness. The palate shows a good concentration of red and black fruits with some smoothness and a seamless, long fruit-driven finish. There’s a bit of sappy detail too, to this layered, pretty wine. 94/100
Yabby Lake Vineyard Single Vineyard Syrah 2015 Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Open fermenter, tiny bit of whole bunch, into puncheons. There’s a fresh peppery edge to the sweet black cherry fruit nose. Perfumed and intriguing. The palate is peppery and vivid with hints of olive, clove, black pepper and tar. Lovely weight here: there’s a silkiness to the fruit and real drive. Stylish. 93/100
