Bindi Pyrette Heathcote Shiraz 2020

Pyrette Heathcote Shiraz is a side project for Michael Dhillon, winemaker at Bindi Wines in the Macedon Ranges. The wine is made using fruit sourced from a vineyard near Colbinabbin on the Mt Camel Range in Heathcote. It's a stylish and pure example of Heathcote Shiraz, picked earlier for freshness and unadorned by excessive oak. 

The project now goes back nearly two decades, to 2001. The seasonal stamp is always there; the Pyrette Shiraz is not a formulaic wine scrubbed and rubbed into an overriding house style, for the harvest date and winemaking is focused on ensuring a balanced wine that shows the markings of the year. As James Halliday says, a Pinot Noir winemaker's Shiraz.

"An exuberant purple red, with wafts of charry smoky oak, cured meats and the darkest fruit spiked with spices. Full bodied, yet a gloss throughout and while the tannins still feel somewhat raw, that points more to the fact the wines is youthful and still coming together. Simply a matter of time."  Jane Faulkner

"The 2020 is a delicious and harmonious continuation of the style showing complex dark fruits, savouriness, spice and graphite. The palate is initially supple and fleshy then builds intensity for a long and balanced finish. It will become more complex and textured over the next six years.

The wine is sourced from an impeccably sited and managed vineyard near Colbinabbin on the Mount Camel Range. The specific parcel of vines is at the highest block on deep red, rocky Cambrian soils on a cooler easterly facing slope. The picking date is carefully assessed in order to capture fruit vibrancy and freshness, whilst capturing the typical mouthfilling richness and length of the region.

The wine is made in 1000 litre open vats, fermented with ambient yeast and matured in French barrels, 10% new. The yield, harvest date and winemaking are deliberately aimed at producing a wine of regional authenticity in a style highlighting fragrance, vitality, finesse and harmony. Production is typically 800 dozen per vintage."  Michael Dillon

Expert reviews

"An exuberant purple red, with wafts of charry smoky oak, cured meats and the darkest fruit spiked with spices. Full bodied, yet a gloss throughout and while the tannins still feel somewhat raw, that points more to the fact the wines is youthful and still coming together. Simply a matter of time. Drink by 2035."  Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion - 94 points

Wines and vineyards

Bindi Original Vineyard Pinot Noir (planted in 1988)

The Original Vineyard has over its history become known for its signature perfumed bouquet and silky, pure palate. This relatively quartz riddled, gently north sloping three acre vineyard produces very fine, spicy, fragrant wine that has high natural acidity and develops beautifully given 6-10 years careful cellaring. As it ages the depth of aroma increases in and the palate becomes increasingly harmonious and is characterized by a sweet fruited, textured flourish. In comparison to the Block Five this wine is more seductive and delicious in its youth whilst still significantly rewarding cellar time. The wine spends 15-17 months in French barrels of which about 25% are new. The wine is never oak driven. Production typically varies from 300-450 dozen per vintage.

Bindi Block Five Pinot Noir (planted in 1992)

The Block Five vineyard is about half of one hectare in size on a sheltered, north facing, and very quartz riddled site. It is a wonderful natural vineyard exposition. The wine is always darker in fruit expression and immediately more spicy and earthy that the Original Vineyard. It is less immediately perfumed and has more tannin and fruit power. The wines from this vineyard require more bottle ageing to develop the same suppleness and delicacy as the Original Vineyard but even in their youth these wines are more profound. The wine spends 15-17 months in French barrels of which about 35% are new. This wine is never oak driven but can certainly benefit from a higher percentage of new oak without being dominated by sappy, smoky oak elements. Production typically varies from 150-200 dozen per vintage.

Bindi Kaye Pinot Noir (planted in 2001)

This special single vineyard (Block K) bottling is dedicated to Kaye Dhillon (1938-1985) and comes from two select parcels (from within the Block K vineyard) from our most elevated Bindi planting established in 2001. One Block K parcel of 115 clone Pinot Noir runs directly alongside Block 5 and the other parcel comes from the very top Block K rows of the MV6 clone Pinot Noir. This vineyard sits just below the end of the Mount Gisborne lava flow and is underpinned by ancient Ordovician period soils incorporating mudstone, sandstone, much quartz rock and clay with a covering of varying amounts of much younger, fine volcanic top soil. The selection for the Kaye Pinot Noir is limited to the best vats from the specific soil profiles and is generally between 70 and 150 dozen, vintage dependent.  These vines are managed in the usual Bindi way without herbicides or pesticides and utilise undervine cultivation and extremely rigorous hand canopy management from pruning to harvest.

Bindi Dixon Pinot Noir (planted in 1998 and 2001)
[formerly called Bindi Composition Pinot Noir]

The Bindi Dixon Pinot Noir is based upon declassified grapes from the Original Vineyard planted in 1988 and grapes from the new Block K, planted in 2001. The ideal of this wine is to produce a delicious, perfumed, spicy harmonious, textured wine that is not as intense, complex nor ageworthy as our individual vineyard wines. Even when the outstanding Block K vines are older we will continue to declassify sections or barrels from each vineyard and produce this wine. The wine is fermented the same way as our other Pinot Noirs in that it is ostensibly 100% de-stemmed and gently worked in small open vats. The wine spends 11 months in French barrels, of which about 10-15% is new. Production varies from 500-700 dozen per vintage.

Darshan planted in 2014 and Block 8 planted in 2016

"Now for something out of left field. Since his father, Bill, set up Bindi in Victoria's Macedon Ranges in the 1980s, Michael Dhillon has overseen a steady expansion and ongoing development of the property's vineyards and winery. Today, with eight different sites – each located on the original property – at his disposal, Dhillon owns an extraordinary microcosm of Burgundy-inspired landscape within one of Australia's coolest wine regions. His two latest sites are turning the expectations of Australian pinot noir on their heads. Over the summer of 2012/2013 Dhillon began to survey and work the soil of what is now his Darshan vineyard, after the Indian name that his father dropped in Australia, becoming ‘Bill'. A mere acre in size, it's largely planted in rows 1.1 m apart, with vines planted at 80 cm intervals. A small section is planted at double that density – a staggering 22,600 vines per ha. Two years later, on another site named Block 8, Dhillon planted another 1.9 acres in identical fashion. His objective, which he's now finding the sites deliver without much manipulation, is for each vine to deliver around 400-500 grams of fruit! What kind of wine do you get with that? The nearest thing this country has produced to Chambertin, that's what. Dhillon will release the first wines around 2022/2023. There will be around 150 cases of each. These are game-changing wines.”  Jeremy Oliver

Bindi Quartz Chardonnay (planted in 1988)

At the upper end of the Chardonnay planting, where the quartz incidence in the soil is the greatest the fruit has extra complexity, finesse and intensity. This wine comes exclusively from this soil. This area is approximately half one hectare in size. The characteristics are similar in the Quartz Chardonnay to the Kostas Rind Chardonnay but all aspects are amplified here yet remain in complete harmony. The winemaking is the same for both wines however the Quartz Chardonnay sometimes spends a few months longer in barrel and there is a higher percentage of new wood used, being around 35%. Production varies from 150-250 dozen per vintage.

Bindi Kostas Rind Chardonnay (planted in 1988)

An intense, mineral wine fully ripe but lean, taught and intense with savoury, creamy elements. Fragrant notes of orange blossom, nectarine stone, spice and subtle nuttiness are usual with a vibrant, tight, long palate highlighted by clean acidity, wonderful texture and fine length. The Kostas Rind Chardonnay is grown in a 1.5 hectare plot. The wine is fermented in French barrels of which typically 20% are new. Fermentation occurs without the addition of cultured yeast and the wine remains in barrel on yeast lees over winter with only a small amount of malo-lactic conversion taking place. It is racked around eight months after vintage, and returned to barrel for a further three months before bottling. Production varies from 300-600 dozen per vintage.

In the words of Bill Dhillon: “Kostas Rind was a Lithuanian sage who epitomised wisdom and humility. From a migrant hostel in Albury, this mathematician and former professor was recruited to Ballarat Boys Grammar School. Kostas taught me much. He introduced me to wine. I was privileged to know Kostas and am very grateful for his influence. We continue to dedicate Bindi wines to Kostas.” 

Pyrette Heathcote Shiraz

Pyrette Heathcote Shiraz is sourced from an impeccably sited and managed vineyard near Colbinabbin on the Mount Camel Range. The specific parcel of vines this fruit comes from is at the highest block on deep red, rocky Cambrian soils on a cooler easterly facing slope. The picking date is carefully assessed in order to capture fruit vibrancy and freshness whilst capturing the typical mouthfilling richness and length of the region. The wine is made in 1000 litre open vats, fermented with ambient yeast and matured in French barrels, 10% new. The yield, harvest date and winemaking are deliberately aimed at producing a wine of regional authenticity in a style highlighting fragrance, vitality, finesse and harmony. Production is typically 800 dozen per vintage.

About the winery

Michael Dhillon was born in the town of Gisborne, 55kms northwest of Melbourne, and grew up at Bindi, a 170 hectare farm just outside the township.  Today he and his family produce chardonnay and pinot from their vineyard at Bindi which Bill and Michael Dhillon established in 1988. In addition, they produce a Heathcote Shiraz sourced from an impeccably sited and managed vineyard near Colbinabbin on the Mount Camel Range. 

Michael served as assistant winemaker to Stuart Anderson from 1991 until 1998 when he assumed full responsibility. Michael learned his craft working with Stuart as well as experiencing vintages in Europe, where he spent time with the Champagne house of Jean Vesselle in Bouzy, with Alain Graillot in Croze-Hermitage and four vintages in Tuscany at Tenuta di Valgiano.  During the mid-1990s Michael also worked with John Wade over parts of three vintages when John was establishing Howard Park Winery.  Michael's passion for Burgundy has seen him visit over 100 different domaines over two decades.

2ha of the farm are planted to Chardonnay (Kostas Rind Chardonnay in 1988 and Quartz Chardonnay in 1988) and 5ha are planted to Pinot Noir (Original Vineyard Pinot Noir in 1988, Block Five Pinot Noir in 1992, Block K Pinot Noir in 2001, Darshan in 2014 and Block 8 in 2016). 15ha are dedicated to managed plantation eucalypts for high grade furniture timber whilst the remainder of the land is maintained as remnant bushland and important indigenous grasslands. The Vineyard elevation is 500m above sea level. Soils are predominantly shattered quartz over siltstone, sandstone and clay with some eroded volcanic topsoil over clay.

Production ranges from 1,800-3,000 dozen bottles per vintage. Yields are typically 1.5 to 2 tonnes per acre (3.5 to 5.0 tonnes per hectare). Typical hand management regimes of fastidious small vineyard philosophies are maintained encompassing hand pruning, frequent passes (at least ten passes each vine) through the growing season managing the vertical shoot positioned canopy and hand harvesting. Since 2005 they have been implementing organic procedures and inputs where the focus is on promoting soil life and balance leading to excellent vine health. This involves compost, undervine cultivation and aerating the soil.

Fermentations occur without addition of yeast, yeast nutrient or enzyme.  Unsettled Chardonnay juice goes straight to barrel, reds are gently worked, delicate pressing, long lees ageing in French barrels and minimal racking. No fining and restricted filtration regimes are followed.