[question] Question submitted by Damien Moran On tasting the range of Yarra Yering 2006 wines today, I was puzzled what was wrong with the Chardonnay. Definately a fault, and far below par. Quite a burnt smell and tasted of burnt orange. No structure or length. When i asked a nearby winery they suggested smoke taint, also they went on to say a little about a product being experimented with (a resin i believe) to remove smoke taint. Do you know any thing about this product and will you be tasting the Yarra Yering range soon? [/question] [answer] I have tasted the Yarra Yering Chardonnay 2006, and I agree with you that it is a very disappointing wine indeed. Given the spectacular releases of Merlot, Pinot Noir and Dry Red #1 from the same vintage, one does wonder what might have happened to the Chardonnay, which I rated as 14.0/77, drink 2007-2008. I found the wine to be dull and oxidised to almost a dry sherry-like state, and did notice the presence of smoky influences and angular, nutty and citrus-like characters. One thing I have learned over nearly 25 years in wine journalism is not to give any credibility at all over what ‘nearby wineries’ say about their neighbours’ wines. Yes, there is a smokiness in the Yarra Yering Chardonnay from 2006, but there was no cause for smoke taint in the Yarra Valley in the 2006 vintage. The following season, which has produced many smoke-tainted wines, is another story entirely. In terms of smoke taint removal, Vinovation Australia, a Melbourne-based wine technology business with an international reputation, has indeed been able to adapt its membrane-derived Memstar AA Technology for this particular task. The machines firstly separate away from the wine the component that needs to be treated, removes the unwanted compound and then recombines the treated fraction with the wine. It does this by pumping the wine under pressure through a reverse osmosis system whose semi-permeable membrane is chosen specifically to exclude individual molecules of a larger size than those that are wanted to be removed. The fluid obtained, which also includes water and alcohol, is then treated with a technique especially chosen to target and remove the particular taint. These machines are rather busy right now, as one might expect. So, while I am loathe to second-guess the causes for Yarra Yering’s disappointing 2006 Chardonnay, I would sincerely doubt that smoke taint or some resin for its removal serves as the cause for the wine’s poor showing. I would state, however, that in my opinion Yarra Yering’s great strengths almost exclusively lie with its red wines, of which the three previously mentioned from 2006 are nothing short of brilliant. [/answer]
