Description
The Mayer Estate is a small producer of hand crafted, single vineyard wines in the heart of Yarra Valley. Winemaker Timo Mayer believes that wines are made in the vineyard and therefore tries to interfere as little as possible. The vineyard is perched on the slopes of the improbably named Mount Toolebewoong, 8km south of Healesville. He makes tiny quantities of wine from his 2.2 hectares of vines, which are mainly planted with Pinot Noir, small amounts of Shiraz and Chardonnay. He is striving to make wines that are true to the expression of the land and have a point of difference, driven by his motto “Bring back the funk!!”. His winemaking credo is minimal interference and handling, and no filtration.
Enigmatic, Charismatic …. and more , it’s almost impossible to ignore the man, the myth, the legend, that is Timo Mayer. German born into a wine making family in Wuerttemberg, wine is in his blood, but the Germanic home team is rather more conservative, so Timo needed to do his thing right here in the Yarra. His animated nature projects on his wines and while doing things differently the German perfectionist is never far away. Clever use of whole bunch, and a more hands-off approach in the winery lead to brilliant expressive wines.
2018 was a challenging vintage up until Christmas with lots of humidity and difficult growing conditions, but once the new year arrived, the weather turned brilliant. Warm and dry conditions for the last two months of the season, gave this vintage a fantastic harvest with very healthy fruit and slightly better quantities than in 2017. The wines were harvested in mid to late march and are beautifully balanced with a touch more ripeness than the 2017’s . These wines are too easy to drink young with their immediate appeal, but will reward cellaring for many years. Only last year at one of our tastings the 2006 Pinot noir showed beautifully at 12 years of age.
30% whole bunch. Very sweet seductive nose with mineral-driven aromas of raspberry and raspberry leaf. Savoury forest fruit on the palate, medium bodied and multi layered. Very stylish, finishing with great length and soft acidity.
Newly released … review of previous vintage 2017 … 96 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front “What is left to say about Timo Mayer, aside, he keeps on making outstanding, fascinating, wonderful wines. There’s the howling at moon, baying at the wind, shirt tearing and pant splitting stuff, of course, and his incredible, unique site, but we know all that. This, of all the ‘Mayer’ wines, is only half whole bunch, the rest destemmed, where typically Mayer wines are 100% whole bunch. One thing you could reason, is that Timo’s wines are usually even better in worse years, but 2017, as great a season as it was for Yarra Valley, makes a hash of that rule.
Whiffs of smoke, gravelly-earthy note, dark cherry, mushroomy funk, undergrowth; where the wild things are. Love this fog of scent. Fine boned in the palate, draped in silky-sweet cherry and herbal flavours, rolls on a sheet of glossy acidity, finishes fine, perky, tight and squeaky. It’s a superb pinot noir, detailed, complex, layered and yet compact. Watch this unfurl.”
RRP $63 LIMITED STOCK
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