The start of a vine romance
As a young chef, Steve Flamsteed went to France in pursuit of a woman. He also had a grant to learn how to make his favourite alpine-style cheeses.
He never did get the woman, but her family in Beaujolais taught him how to make wine. More than 20 years later, he still loves the region's wines and would like to take gamay grapes to Australia to make Beaujolais-style wines at his Giant Steps vineyard.
Returning to Australia, Flamsteed realised he had to specialise; he couldn't be a chef, a cheesemaker and a winemaker and do all three properly. What's more, he has added coffee roasting to his skills. He says insuring his nose, essential for all these ventures, "might be an idea".
Flamsteed's 16-year-old winery now also offers cheese, coffee and home-cured meats, along with sourdough bread baked on the premises. The starter for the bread is at least 50 years old and is from the Poilane bakery in Paris. Giant Steps is home to the Innocent Bystander pinot noir and chardonnay wines.
Situated in what is known as Melbourne's dress circle, the winery's Yarra Valley home is in a semicircle of wine-growing regions that include the Mornington Peninsula, Macedon and Geelong.
The Yarra Valley is known for its rare-breed pigs, lambs, dairy products and even a short duck-hunting season. Pinot noir is one obvious choice for winemakers following the adage, "if it grows together, it goes together".
Yarra's terroir is noted for producing pinot noirs that are highly perfumed - with cherries, rosemary and rose petal notes. Flamsteed also identifies the flavour of musk spice and soft tannins as typical.
An exceptionally wet 2011 means this year's release of pinot noir is even more perfumed than usual, Flamsteed says. The crop was hand-picked to ensure botrytis-infected grapes stayed in the vineyard and didn't make it to the winery.
The Innocent Bystander Chardonnay takes advantage of the region's warm days and cold nights that leave the fruit (all French Burgundy clones) with a high level of acidity. There is little intervention in the winemaking process - no added yeast, acids or enzymes, and only a little , or stirring of the wine as it ferments. The resulting wine is "tight and focused and with a mineral edge," says Flamsteed.
He is a relaxed individual who likes wine geeks and dislikes wine snobbery. He makes some vintages just for fun. The sweet, fizzy, pink Moscato started as a sideline, but he now makes 20,000 cases a year.
Flamsteed has winemaking experience in France's Luberon Valley, Beaujolais and Alsace, which may be why his shiraz wine is definitely more Rhone River than Barossa. Again, the climate is an influence, helping to produce a wine that is not big but slightly spicy and perfumed. While Yarra is at an equivalent latitude south as parts of the syrah-growing Rhone Valley are north, the Australian region's weather is influenced by Antarctica. The cooler climate could make for less intense wines, but warm northern aspects and winds allow for balance, as grapes exposed to the various micro-climates are blended.
And if Flamsteed's wife is reading, he says that, as far as the French woman goes, he "did much better in Australia".
Wines available from Altaya Wines, altaya.com
