Interview: The Rejuvenated Dominique Portet

There’s little doubt that Dominique Portet is one of the most popular winemakers around. Having arrived in Australia in 1975 to get Taltarni onto its feet, his name was synonymous with this distinctive and sometimes enigmatic Victorian wine company until his departure due to poor health after the 1998 vintage. Portet’s enthusiasm for wine and his willingness to communicate about it won him legions of friends around Australia and overseas. Having taken some time out of winemaking in Australian, he launched his own eponymous brand of wine a little over a year ago. He has recently commissioned his own new winery on the corner Maddens Lane and the Maroondah Highway at Yering, in the heart of the Yarra Valley, just in time for the 2002 vintage.

What did you do when you left Taltarni?

Taltarni was great fun, and was a good business to run, but by the time I left I was unwell. So I took a year out to freshen up and take time out. It was the best thing I could do. I lived in a small village near Beaumes-de-Venise in Provence. I have a lot of friends around there, especially since I studied winemaking at Montpellier. I was interested in learning about shiraz, grenache and mourvedre, and I spent a bit of time in Bordeaux looking at the latest developments in winery operations. They’re very advanced over there. I looked at equipment and tank sizes, and when it came to building my winery back here, based it on a modern Bordeaux concept.

Tell us about your new winery, and the innovations it involves.

It has a 300 tonne capacity, and we’ll do 100 tonnes for the Dominique Portet labels this year, plus around another twenty of contract work. I’m enjoying the idea of working in a small winery again, and finding more time for my family and to get out and experiencing wine in general. Meantime, I’m trying to make the best possible wines from small parcels of grapes.

I’ve brought in tanks of different sizes to most wineries, mainly because I’m aiming for more skin contact with reds, trying to get more surface area per volume of skins. I’ve also designed the winery to enable me to move the wine as little as possible, perhaps only a couple of times a year. I hope to leave the wines intact, rather than having to transfer them constantly from one barrel to another. This means I’ll be moving them less than at Taltarni, because I’m trying to emphasise the fruit characters of the wines. The place is well equipped; all the tanks and cellar have temperature control.

What attracted you to the Yarra Valley?

I’ve been very impressed with some of the wines already produced here, like Mount Mary, Yarra Yering, Coldstream Hills, Yering Station and others. It’s my aim to make very good wine out of the great Bordeaux varieties.

I like the structure and mouthfeel of the best Yarra wines. They’re not overloaded with tannins, and are more elegant, and less drying than those of the Pyrenees. Perhaps they will also develop a little quicker, but maybe that suits me better now than when I was younger. I’m making a cabernet today that I would not have made at Taltarni. It’s lighter, and there is an aroma and a fragance you don’t find with Pyrenees cabernet.

I’m also developing a sauvignon blanc. Some years are better than others, but I like the variety. 2001 was difficult, but 2002 looks exceptional. The keys to making good sauvignon blanc are clones, aspects and soils. When they’re all right, you’re in business. I’ll have three clones, from three totally different sites near Warburton, Dixon’s Creek and the centre of the valley.

You are sourcing shiraz from Heathcote. What sort of wine are you looking to make from it?

Rather than going for massively alcoholic shiraz, I’m trying to be more in the northern Cotes-du-Rhone style, with intensity of flavour and fruit. I like the more European style, especially wines like Plantagenet’s 1999 Shiraz. I want to be between that and what most others are doing at Heathcote.

I have difficulty with alcoholic wines. They’re not for drinking; they’re often too rich, too alcoholic or too woody. I think you need some lightness, and I want my wines to be juicy, with flavours of plums, blackcurrants and spices. I want to capture the sort of intense and refreshing dark flavours you get when eating a ripe plum straight from a tree.

I’m also going to be very gentle with oak. I’m not going to pump wood into the wines, but want to use it to carry the wines forward, rather than being the main structural component. Oak will help bring up the structure, but the fruit is to be apparent all the time.

Is Australia living up to its potential with cabernet sauvignon?

Two and a half regions are doing well with cabernet. One is Margaret River, the next is Coonawarra and the half is here the Yarra Valley. There are too many jammy, ‘confiture’ wines from Australian cabernet that lack finesse. Cabernet doesn’t have to be alcoholic.

A handful of makers in the Yarra are doing it well. There’s room for improvement in the working of the grapes, and in the selection of clones and sites. The age of vines is also critical with cabernet, and it’s hard to source older vine fruit.

What are the major changes you’ve witnessed in Australian wine?

When I came here Brian Croser was making sweet white wines at Hardy’s and people were still drinking rubbish like Cold Duck. When I began making dry riesling it was rare at the time. Nobody much was using oak. We’d buy two to three hundred barrels at a time at Taltarni and use our large oak vats and people made a TV program about them. Technology is the main factor here, and it’s brought a lot to Australia, in making and marketing. We’ve proven we can consistently make good wines with flavour in very large volumes. Please login to post comment