Why it matters
The producer
Yarra Yering sits at 4 Briarty Road, Gruyere, on Wurundjeri Country. Carrodus brought training in viticulture and plant physiology when he founded the estate, so the vineyard was central from the outset rather than simply a source of grapes for a cellar elsewhere. That founding choice still frames the wines: the Dry Red labels begin with a dry-grown Yarra Valley site, then separate in blend, maturation and shape in the glass.
Carrodus founded Yarra Yering in 1969, then made its first commercial vintage in 1973. His stated approach favoured minimal intervention and letting the wines speak for themselves, an approach that places weight on the vineyard’s fruit before cellar handling. After his death in 2008, the estate continued under new ownership. Sarah Crowe joined as winemaker in late 2013, adding a later chapter to a property whose name is still tied to its founder’s site choice and early Dry Red tradition.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Gruyere is the Yarra Valley location named on Yarra Yering’s address, and it is where Carrodus chose a north-facing position for the vines. A north-facing site receives the sun directly, a practical advantage for ripening grapes, while the estate’s dry-grown model leaves rainfall and the vineyard ground closely connected to the crop. The result is not a generic Victorian red: each Dry Red begins with fruit from this single Gruyere holding.
The site’s ancient, well-drained soils were part of Carrodus’s original selection. Drainage matters in a vineyard because excess water can move away from the root zone; combined with dry growing, it makes the ground and season material parts of the estate’s work. Yarra Yering does not need an invented geological tale to make that clear. The physical facts are enough: sun-facing vines, old soils, drainage, and 29 hectares without irrigation.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
The estate describes 29 hectares of vines as dry-grown. That farming fact makes vine, soil and seasonal water supply part of the same conversation, rather than treating the vineyard as a neutral backdrop. Carrodus’s minimal-intervention philosophy supplies the historical cellar frame: the aim was to allow the fruit to carry the wine rather than disguise it with unnecessary handling.
The documented cellar detail is more specific for Dry Red Wine No. 2 than for the whole range. Its French-oak maturation belongs to that bottle, not automatically to every Yarra Yering release. Oak time can add texture and spice-like savoury notes while giving tannin a broader frame; in No. 2, it sits alongside a stated profile of aroma, weight, tannin and finish.
Wines to know
The range in view
The current documented range centres here on two 2023 blended reds: Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. They are not interchangeable numbered labels. No. 1’s published material brings fruit and spice together with acidity and tannin, then notes capacity for ageing. Its role is structural as much as aromatic: fruit is carried by acid, tannin supplies grip, and the wine is built to change over time.
No. 2 has a separate blend and a different stated profile, with aromatic detail, palate weight, finish and tannin at the fore. Its French-oak maturation adds a distinct cellar element to that architecture. Taken together, the two wines show a range built through blend and handling: No. 1 focuses on fruit, spice and ageing frame; No. 2 develops aroma, weight and an oak-shaped tannin line.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the 2023 Dry Red Wine No. 1. Its published profile puts fruit and spice beside acidity, tannin and ageing character, so the bottle makes its parts easy to follow without reducing it to a simple fruit-forward red. On the palate, look for fruit meeting spice, then for acidity to keep the wine moving while tannin provides grip and shape. It comes first because its stated profile joins aroma, structure and development in one glass.