Bindi Bottling June 2011 - 2010 Original Vineyard, Block 5 and Quartz Chardonnay

I’ve learnt two things in the past couple of months, one is “don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story” and “its not what you know, its who you know”. I think that’s about all I will say about that.

One thing that is for sure is that Bindi from the Macedon Ranges is mighty fine wine; but you already know that! Just before I took off to Vietnam with the family I headed up the Calder to help bottle the Bindi 2010 Original Vineyard and Block 5 Pinot Noirs and the Quartz Chardonnay. For the 11th time now I have taken the journey up the road and got stuck into some good old fashioned manual labour with 10 or so other Bindi knockabouts and just plain and simply had a great day.

By 7.30am about six of us were milling around the winery ready for the day ahead, and what better way to start then a crisp glass of the Quartz 2010 out of tank. It certainly was a heart starter, and what a way to start the heart; bright, clean, linear and driven by the wonderful mineral soil structure it is grown in. Bill Dhillon was pretty spot-on when he suggested this was the best chardonnay to come out of Bindi.

Just before 10am we were done and dusted with the chardonnay, and now it was the Pinot with the Original Vineyard stepping up to the plate. And with that it was time to taste. Brimming with tart red fruit, the OV 2010 straight out of tank is for me the best since the 06, and that’s big considering the 08 was and is very schmick. The Block 5 was next and quite simply, Amazing!!! Considering this wine was straight out of tank, you could easily say that it was a wine that had spent at least 9 months in the bottle; red and dark fruit, toffee and soft and sexy tannins. A master piece!

One thing that was different this year was bottling all three wines under three different closures; natural cork, Diam and Screwcap. This is so Michael can look at the development of the wines over time and effectively see how much TCA the wines under natural cork will show. I reckon this should be done a bit more by other producers so we can put to bed the ‘natural cork’ sycophants and enjoy all wine, not the 90% of wine that isn’t corked!

Like all bottling days we finished with another beaut lunch from Michaels wife, Wendy. This time it was her Beef Bourgogne; that’s all I’ve got, it was just super. And with this there was more Bindi wine with Michael opening up some back vintage Composition Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and the 2010 Pyrette. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday I’d say!

So there you have it. No truth was harmed in the telling of this story and yes, it is good to know people like Michael Dhillon!