Toolangi Vineyard, buried deep in the Yarra Valley on the outskirts of the Toolangi State Forest, was established in 1995 and has, over the years, established itself as one of the Valley’s most well-regarded sites. It’s planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz and is best known for producing excellent, quintessential Yarra Valley Chardonnay from low-yielding clones of Gingin, Mendoza and I10V3. On average, the vines are 23 years old and sit in fine clay loam soils.  

After a string of years with poor flowering and low yields, 2024 provided some welcome respite for Yarra growers. Along with better yields came top-notch, powerful, concentrated fruit. From Chardonnay master Kaspar Hermann at Toolangi, the 2024 wines are attractive and delicious, full of regional charm and eminent drinkability. This fruit came off the vine on 2nd March and was destemmed and pressed to French oak (10% new) for fermentation on lees. The wine then matured in wood for nine months. As always, it punches well above its weight, delivering Yarra Valley pedigree at a stunning price. 

White wax cap over DIAM cork. Toolangi’s F Block is a one-hectare plot perched on the highest, easternmost sector of the 11-hectare Dixon’s Creek vineyard. Nestled in the corner, within touching distance of the Toolangi State Forest to the northeast and in the afternoon shadow of a large hill to the south, it’s a well-sheltered plot. This position helps preserve the high levels of natural acidity critical to maintaining balance from a site famed for powerful flavour. The soils are shallow and rocky, with more white clay than lower down, which Kaspar Hermann credits with the wine’s sculpted, chalky personality. Yields are always low, rarely providing more than seven or eight barrels, and in this poor flowering year, Hermann had enough for just five. The 21-year-old vines are Gingin clone and produce thick-skinned, full-throated fruit with plenty of spicy nuance and phenolic structure. 

The wines from 2024 show a distinct regional charm and a pleasing ripeness to complement the chalky, mineral edge. As always with Toolangi’s ‘grand cru’, the grapes were hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed into barriques (20% new); wild ferment with around a third of the wine going through malo. If this isn’t one of Yarra Valley’s finest Chardonnays, then we don’t know wine. 

White wax cap over DIAM cork. Toolangi’s F Block is a one-acre plot perched on the highest, easternmost sector of the 11-hectare Dixon’s Creek vineyard. Nestled in the corner, within touching distance of the Toolangi State Forest to the northeast and in the afternoon shadow of a large hill to the south, it’s a well-sheltered plot. This position helps preserve the high levels of natural acidity critical to maintaining balance from a site famed for powerful flavour. The soils are shallow and rocky, with more white clay than lower down, which Kaspar Hermann credits with the wine’s sculpted, chalky personality. Yields are always low, rarely providing more than seven or eight barrels, and in this poor flowering year, Hermann had enough for just five. The 21-year-old vines are Gingin clone and produce thick-skinned, full-throated fruit with plenty of spicy nuance and phenolic structure. 

F Block Chardonnay is Hermann’s favourite wine to make; he even prunes the block himself. 2023’s wet spring provided challenges, but the team’s determination paid off with ripe, vibrant fruit from a mild, kind harvest period. The bunches were pressed to barrique (20%) for spontaneous fermentation with full solids, the wine underwent full malolactic conversion and matured on lees in barrel with no sulphur added until bottling. 2023 is a beautifully tense, energetic rendition of this wine that doesn’t want for flavour. Flecked with grapefruit and barrel spice, it is seamless, effortless and compellingly driven Yarra Chardonnay. 

Stop the presses. Already an impressive Yarra Pinot, from the 2024 vintage this label has upped the stakes. It is now made from Toolangi’s E Block Pinot Noir, just 10 rows of 25-year-old MV6 clone vines identified as growing the property’s most impressive and expressive Pinot. These rows are a direct continuation of the Paul’s Lane parcel to the east, so Kaspar Hermann is convinced something unique is happening beneath the surface. 

This block delivers lower-than-average yields for this already moderate-yielding site, and the fruit holds markedly more drive and intensity. The fruit fermented with 50% bunches over 15 days before being pressed to used French oak barriques (just one new oak barrel accounts for 10%) for nine months’ maturation. Until 2024, this wine was labelled E Block and cost twice as much. So, here you are getting all the wine at half the price. Philip Rich’s note below captures the wine well; it’s a bright, vivid, juicy, complex, single-vineyard Yarra Pinot from a great season, site and grower. Only 200 bottles made. 

Kaspar Hermann’s reputation is built on the back of Chardonnay―Toolangi’s F Block is one of the Yarra Valley’s finest examples―but the ex-Mount Mary man’s skills extend far beyond that. Since taking the helm at Toolangi Vineyard eight years ago, he has honed his Shiraz skills, taking the top-notch fruit grown in the forest-hugging Dixons Creek site and transforming it into evocative, sinewy, seductively perfumed cool-climate Shiraz—at a killer price, too. 

Established in 1995, Toolangi Vineyard is one of the Yarra Valley’s best-kept secrets. It’s a naturally low-yielding site, with 11 hectares of vines nestled in the lee of the Toolangi State Forest. The Shiraz vines are all PT23 clone and planted across two blocks. Handpicked on the 20th of March, the fruit was destemmed as whole berries and fermented on skins for 21 days in an open-top vat. Pressed to aged French oak barriques and foudre for maturation and malolactic conversion, the 2024 spent 10 months in oak prior to bottling.