Why it matters
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 and vineyards
Where the wines begin
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.
In the cellar
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 to know
The range in view
The range is anchored by two named dry reds: Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. 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.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
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.