Levantine Hill: A new Australian fine wine?

Sarah Ahmed tastes the latest releases from luxury estate Levantine Hill, an ambitious fine wine project in Australia's Yarra Valley.

I was glad that a low-key tasting in London with down-to-earth winemaker, Paul Bridgeman, provided my introduction to Levantine Hill Estate, as I could be sure it was just the wines that dazzled.

Only afterwards did I see a figure in excess of AUS$100m put on Lebanon-born property magnate, Elias Jreissati’s Yarra Valley investment – reputedly the wine region’s biggest in living memory.

Scroll down to see Sarah’s tasting notes & scores

The new vineyard of Hill Road was only complete once diamond-tipped drills had worked through the steep rocky outcrops, opening up the soil to enable the planting of vines. In between the low yielding Hill Road and Maroondah Highway vineyards, a truffiére was established to produce French black truffles.Additionally, an on-site fine dining restaurant and super-luxury accommodation go some way to explaining Levantine Hill’s ambitiously priced range of wines.

Launched with the 2012 vintage, the estate cannot lay claim to the lengthy back catalogue of great vintages so intrinsically associated with ‘fine wine’, however Bridgeman’s track record is reassuring, as are his efforts to meet Jreissati’s brief of serious ageing capacity married to approachability.

The winemaking

Borrowing from renowned former employer, Yarra Yering’s Bailey Carrodus, Bridgeman is re-introducing stalks in perforated infusion cylinders for red wine ferments, including the Cabernets. This, and extracting no more than once a day, helps produce tannins of exceptional quality – a stand out of this tasting.

‘Home-grown tannins, built for the long haul,’ said Bridgeman, adding ‘it’s about slowly building tannins on top of each other to carry flavours across the palate, not just leading first with fruit; rather projecting everything together.’

Another ‘slow build’ technique – assemblage – was influenced by his time at acclaimed Rhône producer Chave. ‘Why make one wine when you can make 10?’ says Bridgeman, who assembles each wine from many different batches. Different plots are vinified separately, based on block, paddock and clone, using an uncommon range of oak formats for complexity and structure.

Investment and technique is nothing without terroir, however. My top scoring variety in the range, Syrah, comes from Maroondah Highway – the mature, proven vineyard. It’s alluringly spicy, mineral and very distinctive. However, I was struck by the precocity of the Hill Road vineyard. Established between 2009 and 2015, the Chardonnays and top tier ‘Paddock’ Pinot Noir and Cabernet blend already provide ample evidence that planting this steep, rocky site – against experts’ advice – was worth the $100m gamble.

Levantine Hill: Fact file

Founded 2009

Location Coldstream, Yarra Valley, Victoria

Hectares under vine/soil type Maroondah Highway vineyard: 25ha (planted 1995-2016) on predominantly clay loam; Hill Road vineyard: 5.8ha (planted 2009-2015) on clay loam over mudstone

Annual production 125,000-200,000 bottles

Levantine Hill – Latest releases:

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