Rouleur 'Arlo's Upper Yarra' Pinot Noir
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Vintage: 2021
Yarra Valley, VIC
ALC: 13.5%
Our excitement levels went off the scale when Matty East mentioned he has 'another' Pinot Noir. Wait what? There is more? Premium Premium? Yep. Ok. Buckle up. Fruit sourced from two Upper Yarra vineyards. Meticulously hand-sorted. Minimum intervention. No fining. Lightly filtered. When the fruit is this good, just let it do its thing. And it is doing a thing. Complexity, aromatics of dark and red sour cherries, dried rose petals. Evidence of quality oak in the background. Powdery tannins and surprising length in its youth. Our excitement levels are yet to decrease. They won't for a while. Cellar it 2 to 5 years if you can bear it (a huge ask indeed).
Calling all you high rollers. Allow us to introduce one man band Matt East. He grew up in the Yarra Valley, tinkering with his own wine from a young age, dad growing grapes in the back yard. The Rouleur philosophy is tending to pick on the earlier side for a freshness that knocks your socks off without sacrificing flavour. Matt’s rolling/rouleur journey in wine took him from national sales manager for Wirra Wirra to now getting his handy dirty, (cue suit in the bin. Sales script ripped apart. KPIs and spreadsheets deleted.). Rouleur is a tilt of the hat to his dad - lost but not forgotten - and a nod to the road less traveled.
FROM THE WINEMAKER
First picked was the Primavera vineyard in Woori Yallock where we harvested 3 clones of Pinot Noir (35% MV6, 35% G8V3, 30% 115) on the same day. Later that week, we picked Pinot Noir clone MV6 from the cooler Cordillera vineyard near the township of Macclesfield. Both vineyards are elevated, north/north easterly facing and grown on free draining volcanic clay loam soils.
At the winery, all fruit was meticulously hand-sorted with the Primavera MV6 portion being tipped to the bottom of a single open fermenter as whole bunches. Both the G clone and 115 was fully destemmed on top and cold soaked for a day or so before wild fermentation commenced. Cordillera was similarly processed, but we opted to use only 10% whole bunches due to the ‘autumnal character’ this fruit so often delivers. Again, we fermented using wild yeast and both pots received minimal attention, only a quick hand plunge as needs.
Once dry, the Primavera ferment was left on skins for a further 5 days before being drained, footstomped and gently pressed. The slower fermenting Cordillera fruit was on skins for 3 weeks total before pressing to new and old oak for MLF and maturation.