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| The McCutcheon Vineyard |
The Ten Minutes by Tractor Cellar Door holds a special place in my heart. It was the very first cellar door I visited on my initial tour of Victorian wine regions. 2008 was the year and my brother and I covered four regions in four days. A hectic schedule but a hell of a lot of fun. Anyway, 10X has superb tasting facilities and is a beautiful place to visit. I must get back there some day…
I’m indulging in this act of reminiscence as I recently had the opportunity to taste four vintages of Chardonnay from the McCutcheon Vineyard, thanks to the generosity of Julian Coldrey. It was a wonderful chance to look at a vineyard and variety through time, so I thought I would post a few impressions.
2004 McCutcheon Vineyard Chardonnay
13.5% Screwcap
White peach, baked green apples and lots of spice with a little straw. Mineral nuances on nose and palate. Gently developing honey and caramel notes. A knob of butter along with some basil also present on the bouquet. A mere suggestion of funk works beautifully. Length, poise and youthfulness. Integrated acidity aids a soft and sensuous mouthfeel without the wine suffering in any way from lack of definition or focus. The most complete expression of site that I tasted and a wine that still has many years ahead of it. Utterly beautiful.
2006 McCutcheon Vineyard Chardonnay
13.0% Screwcap
Fine boned, with citrus over white peach on a restrained nose. That green apple is here again along with herbal nuances, light honeysuckle and straw. A Daniel Lanois wine in that each detail or flavour is allowed its own space of expression, without taking away from the cohesiveness of the whole. There is some creamy cashew but the wine is more about intensity than weight. The acidity is the most lively in this vintage but it still doesn’t poke out. I strongly suspect that I would have picked this as the youngest wine had they all been served blind. I might also add that this was the wine poured for me when I visited the cellar door in 2008. After having revisited the 2006 Wallis Vineyard Chardonnay last xmas, it was great to get a chance to see this again.
2007 McCutcheon Vineyard Chardonnay
12.8% Screwcap
The funk was dialled up here. Honeysuckle, honeydew melon, green apple (more baked & spiced than fresh), with sulfur merging into sweaty cheddar characters . Underneath this, excellent minerality and acidity again. A wine with loads of character and interest, ample weight in the mouth and an ephemeral finish. Whilst it was my least favourite, it did not lack a certain charm.
2008 McCutcheon Vineyard Chardonnay
13.8% Screwcap
The current release and a very impressive wine. Grapefruit, lemon and worked nougat characters with a little white peach & understated, lees derived savoury notes. Some struck match too. Good weight and very textural but all within a cool climate model. Fruit and oak in harmony. Pleasantly spicy with a clean finish and very good length. A little more cheese on the palate than I first thought but I like it. Hints of coconut flesh and basil pesto as well. The flavours are quite amalgamated and harmoniuos. In a sense this leads me to believe the experience cannot be totally captured by the descriptors at the beginning of this note.
*****
All of these wines received significant time in French oak, 100% malo, battonage and wild yeast fermentation. They showed the possibility of harnessing these techniques to produce a fuller bodied style of Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay that is always under-pinned by a superb mineral/acid structure. From memory, the Wallis Vineyard produces wines with a touch more finesse and elegance. I think the difference is more interesting when viewed stylistically and in terms of place rather than any idea of objective quality. This is the paradigm in which these Ten Minutes by Tractor Single Vineyard wines offer the most.
Winery Website- http://www.tenminutesbytractor.com.au/