June 25th, 2024Wine notes

with Clive Hartley

Place of Changing Winds growers series

Place of Changing Winds vineyard is located between Mt Macedon and Mt Bullengarook in the Macedon Ranges. Different clones of pinot noir and chardonnay vines were planted between 2012 and 2018.

Everything in the vineyard is a well thought-out plan to produce the best quality that the cool site can offer.

Vascular or sap flow pruning, three full-time staff to manage a tiny 3.1-hectare site including a Bordeaux trained manager/winemaker and dry grown vines shows their commitment and deep pockets.

The vineyard is owned by Robert Walters, a highly respected importer and distributor in Melbourne. His company Bibendum Wine Co has a stella line up of wines from around the world.

So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that their Estate wines are sought after and mailing list driven. Limited supply made them come up with a novel way of even sub-dividing their mailing list customers into ‘High Density’ ‘Fidelity’ and ‘General’ members.

One way of moving up the ranks of their mailing list is to purchase wines from their Grower Series. After tasting them recently you might simply stop with these as they are very good wines.

The 2022 Harcourt Syrah ($59) is grown on granite soils and matured for nearly two years. It is bright, with floral violets, blackberries and pepper, laced with cedar oak. Medium bodied with licorice, nutmeg spice and plums. Some fine grain tannins complete the finish.

Moving over to Heathcote, the 2021 Syrah ($59) is grown on red Cambrian soils of the Mount Camel Range. It has a surprisingly rich, fruit-driven nose, given that it received 33 months of ageing, with blackberry and black cherries as well as vanilla and a touch of licorice.

Whilst the fruit continues on the palate it comes over slightly more reserved, with fine chalk tannins on the finish. Overall, a well-balanced full-bodied wine.

Finally, the 2022 Syrah No2 ($38) is a blend of both the Heathcote and Harcourt sites. It is their least expensive wine, but I ranked it as high as the previous two.

There is a sense of reserve that runs through all their red wines that I liked. It displayed plenty of black fruits again including plum, black cherries and blackberry, some slight raisin and herbal notes as well.

This wine has that characteristic ‘light touch’ on the moreish, savoury, slightly leafy medium plus bodied palate. To round out the wine it has a dry, powdery tannic finish.

Link: www.placeofchangingwinds.com.au

Clive Hartley is an award-winning wine writer, educator and consultant. His 305- page full colour book Australian Wine Guide (7th ed) is available for purchase from Paradise Books in Daylesford or via his website – www.australianwineguide.com.au