Curly Flat

About the Winery
Another of the annoited (self?) top tier of Macedon producers. There is no doubting the intent of the winery (ie quality all the way) but to date I have not been moved by these wines in the same way of Bindi and Cobaw Ridge. That said, the chardonnay in recent years has been top shelf and generally worthy of the big Halliday scores bestowed upon it.

Winery website here and map directions here. There's a decent level of detail on the website so I won't regurgitate but a few points worth noting:

- 33 acres of pinot noir planted all up, mostly to pinot noir, with some vine age just over 20 years (both stats not insignificant for the region).

- heavy focus on use of multiple clones (good for building complexity) and trellising / canopy management (supports the quality at all costs arguement).

2007 Pinot Noir (November 2010)
Huge step up in class from the William's Crossing. A genuine example of Oz pinot in Burgundian clothing with firm flavours of iron and blood. Some complexity here but not really friendly. Needs at least 5 years before giving a second look.

2008 Pinot Noir 'William's Crossing' (November 2010)
Regularly underwhelmed with this second label and the 2008 is no different. Light, simple, cherry dominant. Not really much going on at all.

2008 Chardonnay (November 2010) - Recommended
Very smart on the nose with super serious stone fruit and oak. Palate is relativelty subdued but young and tight. Nice minerals and a good result all round at 12% abv. A bit subtle at the moment but will only get better.

2006 Pinot Noir (March 2010)
Very ripe and robust style that lacks a few aires and graces, but for the most part a quality wine. Stewed fruits on the nose, rhubarb-like, and red berries. Nice underlay of pongy fruit in the palate although the ripe fruits do dominate at this stage. Good lining of acid too. Still very young to assess properly but I do question the $49 price tag. Drink 2013+.

Domaine Epis

About the Winery
One of the region's big guns and for the most part a well deserved reputation. A relatively recent arrival on the scene with some 12 vintages under the belt yet has rapidly generated a following for all 3 wines. As the notes indicate below the cabernet can be brillant sometimes although perhaps they have not aged as well as I might have expected. That said, there's buggar-all decent cab up here.



I've not visited the vineyard in Woodend but have caught glimpses as I have driven past and can assure that you will go a long way to find plantings as well kept. In my view bodes well for the wine as it provides a strong signal around the care that goes into the production.


2000 Pinot Noir (Oct 2009)
Reckon I got the drinking window right for once. Pours murky dirty blood red with light intensity. Nose is salty with tangy sour fruits (light touch). Palate is also light and easy going but the sour fruits remain. Some bitter fruits to finish. Certainly did fade in the glass over an hour, quite rapidly upon reflection. Good wine, but in the 'drink now' bracket.

1999 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mar 2008)
I really wanted to like this mature Epis but unfortunately, as recent tastings would indicate, this wine does look its best within 3-4yrs of vintage. Structurally quite ok; soft tannins and fading acid, but the elegant fruits have really run their race. Starting to thin out and lose any primary notes, although lovers of older cabernet might like the fading herbal fruits. Not compelling.

2000 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mar 2008)
Getting tired but still a very nice drop. Silky mouthfeel, fading fruits and a softening tannin structure. Much better than the 2001.

2001 Cabernet Sauvignon (March 2008)
Tough to read this one. 2001 was supposed to be good for the winery but it doesn't show here. Fruit has largely dropped out although structure is still very classical in anyone's language. There are better options in other vintages.

2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mar 2008)
Nose steps up a gear on the 2005 but ultimately very similar. Soft and delicate cabernet fruits. Not as good as a very good showing in late 2005.

2005 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mar 2008) - Recommended
Massively perfumed nose of pretty blueberry and cassis. Leaner palate, softly fruited but clearly the structure to age is apparent.

2006 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mar 2008) - Recommended
Tight but not hard or unyielding (if that makes any sense?). Mineral and iron notes speak more of Burgundy than Macedon. Nose shows nice 'milky' cabernet fruits - a nice house character. Will be good in time.

2004 Cabernet Sauvignon (Feb 2006) - Recommended
Dark blood red in the glass, almost black. Elegant, leafy nose - classy. Some herbal notes and berries as well. Soft, milky palate with more cool climate berry fruit coming through. Class personified. Maybe a touch subdued right now but will nearly certainly get better.

Holgate Brewhouse

About the Brewery
This just might be Victoria’s best genuine brew pub? All beers generally availabl on tap or bottle at fair prices. A tasting paddle available at $10 for 7 x 90ml samples. Hand pumped Winter Ale and ESB is a nice touch and the delivery medium allows both beers to express themselves in the best possible light.

There's an excellent range of local wines as well and sadly still too many regional venues don't commit to their region - Holgate does.

This place has an excellent relaxed vibe and it’s great to see the locals embracing the concept (note - I am a born and bred Victorian country boy and can attest to non-city folk often being intolerant to something different from the mainstream.

Bar menu is well presented and certainly pitched at the better end of pub grub although to be honest recent meals have been middling. Regardless, a very good reason to visit Woodend.

Big Reg Lager (April 2010)
Light caramel brown in colour; dead clear and clean. Palate is straight forward, crisp and clean, mild malt flavours with a faint sweet / honeyed note. Note as much fizz as previous tastes. Very inoffensive but pedestrian. Certainly not in Holgate's best bracket of beers.

Brick Kiln Hefe (July 2010)
Seems malty for the style with a good lick of caramel but done nicely. Plenty of spice and cinnamon leaves one in no doubt as to the style. Layers of citrus to finish, but this conflicts with the rest of the flavours. Loses intensity in the back palate.

Christmas Ale (Dec 2008)
Sarsaparilla-like in appearance; no head and and brown tan in colour. Cola and chocolate malts on the nose with good underlying sweetness and Belgian-like funkiness. Flavours are fantastic. More chocolate and meaty malts and the sweetness underpinning the palate shows very good intensity yet never gets dumb and simple. This brewer has stepped up more than a few gears in the past year.

Double Trouble (July 2010)
Whilst on the whole this is a very decent dubbel consistency can be a problem. At its best classic Belgian aromas remain (heavy, cooked, sugary malts) with a surprisingly dry palate driven by super classy hops. Otherwises a bt heavy and porty / peaty as the abv pokes through. Still, well worth a look.

ESB (April 2010)
I've completely fallen in love with this beer. In many ways this is Holgate's best beer given it's very good and very well made interpretation of a classic style. Classic light caramel in colour. Thin head and thin lacing. Soft malty, fruity nose with a touch of chocolate; quite ’English’. More of the same to taste although the flavours definitely have a more obvious hop and herbal note. Very smooth and soft style; again a very good example of the impact of the hand pump.

Hopinator Double IPA (Sept 2010)
New world or North American style. Tan brown in colour with a very thin head; about what one can expect. Big sweet nose of souped up malts and lifted sweet malts. The aromas are incredibly powerful and very American. Flavours are dry, relative to the palate, but still very much in the mould. Malts fall away a touch and more about resiny hops and a herbal underlay. The flavour does noticeably fall away and lacks penetration. Not an all-day sipper but stylistically on the mark.

Mount Macedon Ale (August 2010)
I've not had this from tap before but largely comparable to the bottle version. Must be Holgate's best chance to convert the unadventerous; this is a simple but straight forward fruity ale with low hop impact. Not one to think about but would be good in summer.

Nut Brown Ale (June 2009)
A fairly full flavoured brown ale. Soft milk chocolate on the nose along with a fruity hint. Chocolate a little more subdued but certainly more bitter than the nose suggests, and some roast with mild astringency comes through. There’s also a minerally and confectionary note that I can’t really place but enjoyable nevertheless.

Temptress Chocolate Porter (April 2010)
It’s good to drink a chocolate-based beer that actually has a fair whack of chocolate character running through the palate. Dark chocolate kicks in very nicely, particularly in the back palate, but does need to fit a little against some fizz and an otherwise non descript porter base beer. No doubt will appeal to the ladies!

The Mild One (August 2010)
Mild by name and very mild by nature. Best described as a limp Vienna showing soft caramel notes on the nose and palate. Lots of fizz and a touch of bitterness, but otherwise not much else. I was a bit disappointed actually but hey, maybe that's part and parcel with low ABV beers.

UXB English Strong Ale (April 2010)
Described by the brewery as a souped up version of the verygood ESB and I would think this is an accurate description. It’s a slight pity that the soft creamy palate structure is lost a little in favour of more powerful malts and hops but I’m not sure that this is avoidable. Foreceful and new world in style but very well balanced. Nice mild resin / piney note from the hops. Quite similar to Three Ravens Uber ESB although note quite as intense. Good beer.

White Ale (Oct 2004)
Pours a weak head and quickly disappates. Nice larger like gold, slightly pale, and a fraction murky. Very tought to get much out of the nose; fairly subdued with a little spicy. A bit more going on in the mouth with sour sweet spice but still the flavour profile is faint. Seems excessively carbonated, detracting from what ever flavour notes are trying to assert themselves. Finishes short.

Winter Ale (June 2007)
Dark chocolate brown - very inviting. Head is quite fat and holds ok. Nose is sweet and fruity, with some faint tinny notes. Has character. Very good mouthfeel and flavour travels full length of the palate. Some roasted notes speak a little of a dark stout but malt sweetness and a little heat point more in the direction of a strong ale. Pretty good stuff.

Woodend Pilsner (Sept 2010)
The house character of clean fruity hops is evident here but much more low key (as it should be for the style). Straight forward build and daggy hops drive the back palate. Very authentic in this respect, even if the tropical fruit is trying, with limited success, to push through.

Road Trip IPA (Feb 2010)
Brief observations off tap at the brew pub. Balanced style that is quite easy going. A new world take on the style but it doesn’t stray into the extreme territory (probable a deliberate aim of the brewer). Hop and malt impact is relatively mild with only faint resin and caramel touches. In some aspects a lighter version of the Hopinator. Well made if just a touch pedestrian.

Cobaw Ridge

About the Winery
For me Cobaw Ridge rounds out the region's top handful of wineries (along with Bindi, Curley Flat, Domaine Epis and Granite Hills. I was blown away with the 1999 Chardonnay nearly a decade ago and it still stays etched in my palate as one of the greatest Victorian chardonnays I have ever consumed. Of course the other key note of interest is production of Australia's most established Lagrein. I've seen a few others pop up in recent years but Alan Cooper's example, at its best, stands up confidently to leading examples from Alto Adige in Northern Italy.

The winery is a touch off the beaten track so best have directions handy.

Shiraz Viognier 2005 (August 2010)
A touch green, leafy and lean but generally more proof that shiraz is well suited up in Macedon (well better than pinot anyway!). Some nettles and hard green fruits here but it seems to work ok, and the viognier appears to sweet the top layer of the fruit up nicely. Some burnt rubber, albeit faint, points to a reductive note. Overall faithful to its cool climate roots.

Chardonnay 2006 (August 2010) - Recommended
Doesn't hit the heady highs of the 1999 (still one of the best chardonnays I have ever drunk) but this is smart and good for the region. Looks a little developed for a 4 year old with a rich yellow hue. Sweet worked fruits on the nose and a soft / mild dusty oak character. Oak is a bit more noticable on the nose (think wood spice) but the fruit depth is a good match. Fruits are again worked, sweet and powerful, with tinge of citrus and minerals. Not sure if will get a lot better and quite seductive now.

Langrein 2005 (April 2010) - Recommended
Hard to tell if this is a bit under-ripe (ie plenty of nettles and minerally cherry fruit) but there is no doubt the lighter fruit weight delivers real character to this wine. Plus, these traits are not out of place in examples from Trento. Some darker fruits kick in late but for the most part wonderful fluffy fruits, minerals and zing drive the wine. Much better than the 2004 and on par with the 2001. Looks good at 5yrs. Drink 2010 - 2012.

Lagrein 2004 (Feb 2010)
Maybe on the decline at 6 years of age? If so only very early stages but I guess the variety was never going to be a cellaring hero. Very true to text book and perhaps more so than the 2001. Light dancing cherry fruit with a zingy mineral underlay. Not miles away from light weight pinot noir. So light and elegant I'm prepared to accuse it of being underfruited (but not lacking ripeness). Drink up.

Langrein 2001 (May 2003) - Recommended
Very rare wine by Australian standards. BTW beautifully presented bottle and label. Medium red appearance with a nice fade to a lighter red. Aromas of sour cherry and some meaty funky notes led to a complex long palate. More sour cherry notes but done in a way that is rarely seen in pinot. Some spritzyness early but did disipate. Spicy notes with some tannin but fairly light. The sour cherry notes are quite awesome - dont want to get over-awed by the novelty of the wine but this is a very good drop.

Eating - Kyneton

Pizza Verde (April 2010)
Address: 62 Piper St
BYO: yes corkage ~$5 per bottle

Previous hyped in some food critic circles as Victoria's best pizza establishment, and certainly to my view doesn't hold that mantle, but there is no doubt (Ladro excepted perhaps) that this is the State's most 'complete' offering.

15 or so pizzas priced between $15 and $20 together with a handful of contemporary entrees, kids pizzas, deserts and a few non-pizza optins. Drinks menu is limited to 5 house labels plus 3 local options, and the beer menu is quite good (10 or so) that includes the Harcourt Original and Perry ciders.

Service is excellent and venue layout provides for a good mixture of big and small groups. Kid / pram access excellent.

One of those places you would be glad to show off to the discrening out-of-towner.

Granite Hills

About the Winery
Granite Hills, along with Virgin Hills, can rightly be considered the founding vineyard of the region. A very solid reputation has been sourced on old vine (well, 30 years+!) shiraz and riesling and my tasting suggest one which is well deserved. Indeed the riesling has few peers in Victoria, apart from Crawford River in Henty, and represents incredible value.

Other varieties have struggled in my recent tastings and in a number of cases the wines have been downright disappointing. Still, a regional favourite and one that deserves your interest.

2003 Cabernet Sauvignon (Nov 2010)
Seems to have fallen foul of heavy over cooked and over-ripe fruit. The varnishy nose makes this very obvious although could be hints of VA as well. The palate is much cleaner than the nose suggests although the heavy characterless fruit remains. Some aniseed and spice to finish. Lacks any varietal trait and actually proves that over-ripe cab is far worse than over-ripe shiraz. That said, can't hurt to keep for a couple of years.

2004 Shiraz (Aug 2010)
A relative bargain at $38 at the Pig and Whistle pub in Trentham. Looks in good nick at 6 years of age. Plenty of fruit and depth, suggesting there were no issues with the growing season. There's a layer of smoke and prhaps a reductive character that I can't quite ignore however this may have blown off had I had the chance to decant. Good mediumed bodied build. Nothing wrong with this but I just can't get excited.

2006 Pinot Noir (Apr 2010)
Something went wrong here. Smells and tastes every bit it's 15% and in fact could well be higher. I've seen plenty of overcooked porty fruits in shiraz (and barely palatable) but this is completely inappropriate in pinot. This is so off the mark it's hard to see how pinot from this region can hit this level of ripeness. Stewed rhubarb fruits finish hard and hot. (89 views)

2008 Riesling (Mar 2010) - Recommended
Still one of the great rieslings of Victoria and very good buying at $21. Has shed any aggressive primary fruit at 2 years old, instead showing quote settled (even a touch muted) lime fruits. Still plenty of palate weight given the lime is quite thick in texture, and the undeniably granite mineral note kicks the back palate along. A very rare and faithful showing of Australia terrior. Needs time to rest before looking again (maybe 2013?).

1995 Shiraz (April 2008) - Recommended
Great palate weight for this wine. Very medium climate in style that is very balanced. Great pepper and spice, and seems young. Really quite impressive

Gisborne Peak

About the Winery
At the very least this is a fantastic place to visit to sample some very solid woodfire pizza. Nice setup that clearly relies heavily on the food aspect to get the punters in, and perhaps just as well as the wines (from those sampled) don't really fire.

No doubt a tough viticultural site - lots of wind and very cool temperatures - and I think this shows in the wines through a lack of depth and intensity in the flavours. They are quite well made don't really get out of first (or second gear).

Getting a seat in the restaurant on a Sunday is not guaranteed so it might pay to book.

Chardonnay 2007 (August 2010)
Light and elegant wine that is well put together. Nice touch of oak fills out the minerals and peach. Helps fill out what might otherwise be a slightly hollow palate. No excitement machine but good enough.

Pinot Noir 2008 (August 2010)
Again a wine that tends towards the light side for fruit depth and intensity. Ok black cherry flavours here but the oak pokes through a bit too much for my liking and slightly disjoints the wine. Many better options for the money ($28).

Riesling 2008 (April 2010)
New label, to me at least, but I understand the vines have been in the ground for 30+ years! One of the benefits of moving to Woodend, I guess, is discovering little known labels such as this. Drank over 2 nights but unfortunately I am writing my notes off the second sitting and it is clear that the wine has lost some energy over the past 24 hours. Still, shows good lemon and lime albeit at 'first gear' intensity. It is well worth noting that the ABV comes in a at a mere 10%, an attribute sorely lacking these days in the domestic market. To be fair I will try again soon (and in one sitting).

(Ian Marks, Woodend, $18)