Dominique Portet - COLDSTREAM

We visited Dominique Portet Winery as part of a private Yarra Valley wine tour, on July, 24, and enjoyed it greatly. We had instructed our guide that we wanted serious tastings with smaller producers, and not larger, highly commercialized wineries. Dominique Portet fit that profile very well.The winery is very interesting, both from its beauty, and from its historical perspective. We opted to do a “barrel tasting,” which is always fun. Now, barrel tastings are probably best, when one lives close to a winery, and can chart the progress of the wines, over time in barrel, say every 6 weeks. A single barrel tasting is probably of less importance, than several over a span of time – but fun, none the less. Besides, we were doing at least six wineries in the Yarra Valley, so we were getting our share of release tastings.Though we had stated our higher-than-usual interests in wine from the Yarra Valley producers, I am not sure that our hostess got that message. She had a “canned” presentation, that was geared for the first time taster. It was not until Mr. Portet stopped by, and my wife conversed in French with him a bit, and I began asking some “serious” winemaker questions (in English, unfortunately), that the tasting went to a different track – in depth, involved, and so very much fun, with great information being shared with us.One of the pleasant surprises for us, fairly early in our trip, was the number of really good sparkling wines were coming from the Yarra Valley, and also Tasmania. We got to sample a few of those with the Yarra Valley Brut Rosé NV, and Tasmanian Cuvée ‘06 sparklers.The Origine Chardonnay ‘16 was a big hit, as was the Dominique Portet Shiraz ‘14. We tasted the Fontaine Cabernet Sauvignon in barrel, which was interesting, as we got to compare it to the very similar release wine, the ‘16.The time spent with Mr. Portet was exactly what we wanted, but something that is very tough to set up, especially from the USA. It was just a chance meeting, but a fortuitous one, and a highlight for us.Lovely venue, friendly folk, and great wines – what more can a couple of “winos” from the US ask for?

We arrived and our tasting was organised by David from (Chauffeur Drive) with Valentin in the cellar barrel area. A great experience with plenty of information given to us in a most pleasant manner by Valentin about the French wine process and the father/son combination of Dominique and Ben Portet and their wine styles. A highlight being a barrel tasting along with tasting a great selection of wines. A number of which were then purchased as they were most enjoyable to the palette. A great experience and a winery that we will definitely return to.

Charming winery tasting area. Birdsong and views in the car park area. Best Rose outside France (well, except for Medhurst Rose).

This is such a nice place and the wine is really good too, loved the Rose especially, we will be back.

I particularly like the wines here. Unfortunately for us not all the usual white wines were available for tasting because they had sold out! Testament to their excellent quality. Still we enjoyed what was available. We did not eat on this occasion but hope to next time. the cellar door staff were efficient and friendly. It was a lovely day, so after tasting we had a game of petanque which was good fun.