Australia · Yarra Valley

Yarra Yering Vineyard

A Yarra Valley estate founded by Dr Bailey Carrodus in 1969, working 29 hectares of dry-grown vines on a northerly slope below the Warramate Hills.

The producer

Yarra Yering’s two numbered dry reds began with the 1973 vintage, four years after Bailey Carrodus established the estate. Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2 remain the clearest link between its early Yarra Valley vineyard and the bottles bearing the same names today.

The 29-hectare vineyard is grown without irrigation, and fruit is hand-picked in cool morning conditions into 10-kilogram buckets. After sorting, grapes are destemmed or crushed into 0.5-tonne open fermenters known as tea chests. For Dry Red No. 1 2018, an even vintage resulted in a dry, medium-bodied wine described as fine-boned rather than bulky.

Known for

Dry-grown Yarra Valley reds, centred on Dry Red Wine No. 1 and No. 2, with hand-harvested fruit fermented in small open tea chests.

Notable facts

The story

The first numbered reds

Dr Bailey Carrodus established Yarra Yering in the Yarra Valley in 1969. Four years later, the 1973 vintage produced the first Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. The names arrived early in the estate’s life, attached to wines made from its own vineyard at the foot of the Warramate Hills rather than added later as commemorative labels. From the 1973 harvest onward, the two bottles gave the young estate a pair of named dry reds. Their numbers still point back to that first vintage: 1969 for the founding of Yarra Yering, then 1973 for No. 1 and No. 2.

From the atlas

Yarra Yering Vineyard

At A Glance

The Producer

Yarra Yering Vineyard began in 1969, when Dr Bailey Carrodus established the estate in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. Its two enduringly named dry reds arrived with the 1973 vintage: Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. That sequence connects the estate’s early years to bottles that remain central to its story, with the vineyard rather than a negotiated purchase of fruit at the centre of the work.

The present estate describes 29 hectares of dry-grown vines. Sarah Crowe joined as winemaker in late 2013, working with fruit from the same Yarra Valley address and a cellar built around small, open fermenters. The result is a producer whose dry reds begin with a specific hillside and pass through a notably hands-on harvest and fermentation process.

Place

The vineyard sits at the foot of the Warramate Hills in the Yarra Valley, on a northerly slope. Northern exposure brings sun to the vines, while the site’s elevation and drainage help reduce the threat of spring frost. Those conditions support balanced fruit, so the estate can work with ripeness without treating sheer weight as the sole measure of a red wine.

Yarra Valley on the label gives the regional frame; Warramate Hills and the north-facing slope narrow the picture to the estate’s own ground. For Dry Red Wine No. 1 and No. 2, that location is not decorative background: it shapes the fruit that reaches the small fermentation vessels and, in the case of the 2018 No. 1, supports a medium-bodied profile rather than a bulky one.

Soil And Site

No soil type is supplied for this vineyard, but the physical site is clear. The vines stand on a northerly slope at the foot of the Warramate Hills, without irrigation, where drainage, sun exposure and elevation are important parts of the growing conditions. Dry-growing leaves the vine dependent on rainfall and its root system, while the slope and drainage help move water away after wet weather.

That combination matters at harvest. Fruit from a site with reduced spring-frost risk and balanced ripening can be picked in the cool morning, then brought quickly to the winery in small buckets. The wine consequence is practical rather than mystical: the cellar receives carefully handled fruit in manageable lots.

Story

After Bailey Carrodus died in September 2008, Yarra Yering went onto the market in April 2009. A small group of investment bankers acquired the estate with the stated intention of maintaining its established vineyard, winery and wine style. The continuity promised was concrete: keep the vines, the working cellar and the established dry-red approach in place rather than replace them with a new model.

Sarah Crowe’s arrival as winemaker in late 2013 added a new person to that continuing estate story. The visible thread runs from dry-grown vines on the Warramate slope to the tea chests in the cellar, then into wines still named Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. The labels carry the history, but the fruit and the fermentation vessels keep it active from vintage to vintage.

Vineyards And Cellar

Yarra Yering’s 29 hectares are grown without irrigation, so the vines are described as dry-grown. Harvest is by hand during the cool morning, with fruit placed in 10-kilogram buckets. Smaller containers limit the amount of fruit stacked on itself before sorting, and the cool timing brings grapes into the winery before the day’s heat has built.

After sorting, the fruit is either destemmed or crushed into traditional 0.5-tonne open fermenters called tea chests. Those are small vessels by cellar standards, allowing fermentation to be handled in separate, physical lots rather than as one large industrial volume. For the dry reds, the process puts grape skins and juice into open fermentation while preserving the option to handle different parcels or fruit conditions separately.

Wines

The range is anchored by two named dry reds: Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. Both first appeared in 1973, and their numbered names are a useful way into the estate without inventing a hierarchy the supplied material does not establish. They are not simply historical labels; they are the named red wines that connect the founding years to the present vineyard and cellar.

Dry Red Wine No. 1 2018 offers the clearest supplied structural detail. It came from an even, easy vintage, yet was described as fine-boned and medium-bodied. That matters because an even growing season did not translate automatically into a thick, heavy wine. The bottle’s shape is dry red fruit carried at medium body, with a narrower frame than its warm-vintage reputation might lead someone to expect.

In The Glass

For the 2018 Dry Red Wine No. 1, begin with structure rather than an invented catalogue of aromas: it is a dry red with medium body and a fine-boned build. The even, easy vintage supplied ripe material, but the reported profile stays measured in weight. That relationship gives the wine a more composed palate shape than a red driven mainly by mass.

The finish is best approached through that same frame. Expect the dry, medium-bodied wine to carry its fruit without a dense or syrupy impression, and let the wine’s body and line show before looking for detail in the glass. Its suggested drinking horizon extending to 2040 also indicates that the 2018 bottle was assessed as capable of long development.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Yarra Yering Dry Red Wine No. 1 2018. It is a vintage-specific dry red from the estate whose first No. 1 was made in 1973, and its reported medium body makes it a useful first encounter with the house’s red-wine approach. The wine came from an even, easy vintage but was still described as fine-boned, a contrast that keeps the bottle focused on shape and weight rather than simple ripeness.

This bottle also joins the vineyard to the cellar in a direct way: dry-grown fruit from the Warramate Hills site was hand-picked, sorted and directed into the estate’s small open-fermentation system. Pour it for its dry profile, medium body and long projected life, then return to the label’s number with the 1973 origin in mind.

Anecdote

Dr Bailey Carrodus established Yarra Yering in 1969 in the Yarra Valley. Four years later, the 1973 harvest produced the first Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. The two numbered wines did not arrive as later commemorative labels: they came from the estate’s early vintages, after Carrodus had planted and established the vineyard at the foot of the Warramate Hills. From that point, the producer had two named dry reds tied to its own site. The first bottles therefore linked a founder, a Yarra Valley vineyard and a particular vintage in one sequence: 1969 for the estate, 1973 for No. 1 and No. 2.

Final Word

Yarra Yering is easiest to hold in mind as a Yarra Valley hillside estate with dry-grown vines, cool-morning hand harvests and small open tea chests in the cellar. Dry Red Wine No. 1 2018 brings those details into one medium-bodied dry red, while the numbered labels lead back to the estate’s first 1973 vintage.

Sources

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