Ballarat wineries: Yellowglen, Appellation, Eastern Peake, Mount Coghill, Nintingbool and Tomboy Hill
How Ian Watson, schoolteacher, helped build Ballarat’s thriving vineyard scene.
Ebenezer Ward, a freelance journalist, was commissioned “by Mr Syme, of The Age” to visit and write about the vineyards of Victoria in 1864. In those faraway days word count was not the concern it is today, so Ward was able to chronicle the smallest details at length. He opened his description of Ballaarat (sic) Vineyard thus: “Some people will perhaps be surprised to learn that there is a large wine-producing vineyard within four miles of Ballaarat, and that the proprietor has felt justified, by his experience of the last few years, to double his acreage of vine cultivation.”
Now, 150 years later, I could mimic Ward by writing that it may surprise many that at Smythesdale, just to the southwest of Ballarat, Melbourne businessman and bon vivant Ian Home established Yellowglen in 1971. (It was acquired by Mildara in 1984 and moved to Merbein.)
I thought no more about Ballarat until 2005, when I tasted Tomboy Hill’s 2002 and 2003 pinot noirs and chardonnays and was blown away by their quality.
Ian Watson was a schoolteacher and had slowly built up a patchwork quilt of small plantings of pinot noir and chardonnay. Even now his vineyard is only 3.6ha, and he encouraged others in the region to plant vines to supplement his estate production.
Today there are five wineries: Appellation Ballarat (3.8ha), Eastern Peake (5.6ha), Mount Coghill Vineyard (0.7ha), Nintingbool (2ha) and, of course, Tomboy Hill. The game changer is Scott Ireland (and wife Jen) of Provenance Wines in Geelong. He is Ian Watson’s winemaker, and has leased the mature 5ha Scotsburn Vineyard.
More significantly, in 2010 Scott and Jen purchased 30ha of red volcanic soil with a large spring-fed dam, and they are expecting the first vintage next year from the 1.5ha planted in 2012.
2014 Provenance Golden Plains Chardonnay
A blend of grapes from Geelong, Henty and Ballarat, hand-picked, whole bunch-pressed, matured
on lees for nine months in French oak (40% new). You can easily spot the diamond-cut fruit from the ultra-cool Ballarat and Henty regions with its livewire acidity balanced by the richer stone fruit flavours ex Geelong. Works brilliantly. 13.5 per cent alc, screw cap
95 points, drink to 2025, $29
2013 Tomboy Hill William’s Picking Ballarat Chardonnay
A limited release of 75 dozen. The similarity of the fruit intensity to that of the ’14 Rebellion Chardonnay is uncanny; it has profound depth, built around a deep well of very special acidity — which gives the fruit free rein to express itself, as it does here, grapefruit to the fore, framed by oak. 12.6 per cent alc, screw cap
95 points, drink to 2025, $50
2014 Tomboy Hill Rebellion Ballarat pinot noir
Matured in new and used French barriques. Deep crimson-purple; it has the forestry/savoury density that is the hallmark of Ballarat pinot, underpinning a long, black cherry-filled palate.
13 per cent alc, screw cap
93 points, drink to 2024, $35