The team behind DML VIN have a thirst for top quality, single site Pinot Nor. This Yarra Valley example is true to the DML philosophy which favours an evocative, savoury style of Pinot. It highlights the exceptional fruit purity of grapes from the region’s best growers, with beautiful earthy notes. The wine is made in extremely small quantities.
DML (D’Anna Middleton Lewis) VIN is a passion project making expressive single-vineyard Pinot Noir in Victoria. When AFL player Jordan Lewis visited his very first vineyard while honeymooning in Florence, he fell hook, line and sinker. Once he returned home, he dedicated himself to making up for lost time, and immersed himself in the world of wine. One bottle evaded him: the Langton’s Classified ‘Excellent’ 1er Pinot Noir. To source it, he got in touch with Hoddles’ Franco D’Anna. The two got on like a house on fire. Mount Mary’s Sam Middleton soon completed the trio. Together, the three characters that make up DML seek to create exemplary regional Pinot from exceptional parcels around Victoria.
It’s very pretty and refined. All fresh raspberry and red cherry, floral perfume and a dusting of spice, kind of juicy, but nicely composed, expanding and filling the mouth with flavour and gentle emery tannin, fresh and long through the finish. Wholesome feeling, classic styling, and just lovely to drink.
95 points, The Wine Front (May 2020)
MV6, hand-picked and sorted, whole berry-open fermented, matured for 10 months in French oak (25% new). The colour isn't as bright as its Mornington Peninsula sibling, but the bouquet is carried on an exotic array of spices and forest berries. The palate is typical Yarra Valley, with drive coming from red fruits and superfine, savoury tannins.
96 points, Wine Companion (March 2020)
Medium to light red/purple hue. Fragrant spice and cherry-plum aromas, clean and bright, firm and taut, with an extra level of structure. Tightly-coiled, firm and snappy on the aftertaste. Lacks pinosity but quite good.
90 points, The Real Review (June 2020)
Yarra Valley
The Yarra Valley was first planted by the Ryrie brothers who explored a way through the Snowy Mountains to the Yarra Valley, planting grapes in 1838 just three years after the foundation of Melbourne. A wine industry (developed by Swiss Settlers particularly Hubert de Castella and Baron Guillaume de Pury in the 1850s) thrived during the gold rush era and heyday of the 19th century. However, the end of the gold rush brought the wine industry into decline and it was not until the 1970’s that the modern wine industry started up again. The region is probably Australia’s best-known cool-climate area, yet it is really a patchwork of meso-climates. This varied topography creates an incredible set of variables. Vineyards are planted on elevations of 50 to 400m on varying aspects and management programmes. The more exposed sites are subject to severe spring frosts and winds. Overall, the area experiences a relatively high rainfall pattern and is known for its temperature extremes during ripening. Site selection is crucial, with the best vineyards often located where the original vines were once planted, generally on sandy clay loams and gravels. The Yarra Valley is well known for high quality Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Blends with Shiraz increasingly garnering attention. Sparkling wine production is also extremely important, with many of Australia’s finest examples produced in the region.
