Apart from Chardonnay in the hands of makers like Ken Eckersley at Nicholson River, and Pinot Noir made by that master of Pinot, Phillip Jones at Bass Phillip, Gippsland wines await a final verdict.
Certainly in ripe warm years the Chardonnays and Pinots of Gippsland can be magnificently full-flavoured and even Cabernet Sauvignon ripens well, but Gippsland´s problem is that such years are atypical. In cooler years, later ripening reds and whites, though delightful in their fruit character, seem to gain insufficient weight to interest the normal consumer of Australian wines.
The soils are - as expected in such a large area - very variable. Its windy and often wet along the Bass Strait coast in spring and early summer. In some years also, except for grape varieties such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, autumn rain and cold bring the ripending season to an end too soon for the full maturation of most popular Australian wine grape varieties. |
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