VALHALLA WINES 20th ANNIVERSARY POP UP - SATURDAY 4th OCTOBER
2025 marks 20 years of Valhalla and we are having a little cellar door party to celebrate. Saturday 4th October sees me popping back up at the Wicked Virgin (165 Hopetoun Road, Rutherglen). Open 10-5, of course there will be some vinyl playing, I'll be showing three brand new releases, our current range and a back catalogue of wines from the last twenty years. This will be the final opportunity to taste some of these wines and a real treat for those of you who love some age on your wines.
NORTH EAST FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL - JUNCTION SQUARE
DINNER Friday 24th October & FESTIVAL Saturday 25th October.
On the Friday night, Miss Amelie will be helping us continue to celebrate 20 years with a six course degustation dinner perfectly matched to a selection of Valhalla's newest releases and some gems from the cellar.
Saturday sees us joining some of the best in food and drinks from the North East at Junction Place, Wodonga. Over 40 vendors from the border region will be showcasing the best they have to offer. Sample wines, boutique brews and gourmet food against the vibrant buzz of live music and entertainment. Running from 3pm till 8pm, this is always a fun event and I look forward to seeing you there.
NORTH EAST FOOD AND WINE FESTIVAL
DEGUSTATION DINNER ENQUIRIES - hello@valhallawines.com.au or call 0429330280.
TASTING AT BARRIQUE WINE STORE - FRIDAY 10/10
If you know Barrique, you'll know these Friday evening tastings go much further than a mere tipple to explore. Its somewhere between a wine tasting, a house party and a community gathering with people from the Valley and beyond getting together to celebrate all things vinous & life itself. The last time I did this I ran into old friends I hadn't seen since wine school in the 90's!
Friday 10/10, 5-7.30pm, 260 Maroondah Highway Healesville
Barrique Wine Store
20 years of sun and rain, muddy boots, dust and red stained hands..
Well 20 years happens pretty quickly, though looking back at some of the photos feels like a lifetime ago as well. I crushed my first grapes for Valhalla in 2005, at a friends winery, with much anticipation and both belief & fear. The foundations of this had started a few years before whilst working at other wineries, with the purchase of a piece of land almost naked except for a house, and then the start of rearing our kids whilst planting a vineyard and building the winery. We were working with a "Field of Dreams" approach that if we built it, they would come! Running on the smell of an oily rag and a belief in self that only youth can provide...
2007 saw the building of the winery & the opening of the Cellar Door and the gradual evolvement over 15 more years of what Valhalla Cellar Door could became. This includes the Tastes of Rutherglen, Winery Walkabout, Sunday pizza sessions, Music trivia nights, art workshops and exhibitions, yoga & sound healing events, unplanned parties and the Green Living Fair.
A long way from the simple cellar door I had set out to run initially.
Now, uncounted versions of Valhalla later, resilience doesn't even start to describe what working with mother nature and the complexities of what life can bring. But, I am still making wine - I am now crafting the wines up in the hills of the North East, with regular festivals, pop up cellar door events, wine club packs and a growing presence in small wine bars, shops and restaurants. Things change a lot over 20 years, and I am grateful that many of you have shared some of this journey with me. I feel blessed to still be able to work with great grape growers, to be able to express the fruit and myself in the wines I make and to connect with you. I appreciative the opportunity for the wines that tell my story to become part of yours.
Three new wines are on the way - Riesling, Syrah & Cabernet Merlot
The 2025 Riesling has just been bottled and I cant wait to share it with you. This is from the amazing Croucher vineyard on the Whitlands Plateau, high above the King Valley. It's the fourth highest altitude vineyard in Victoria, super cool climate and the wine has beautiful limey fruit and a crisp finish, I'll be slurping this with grilled prawns all Summer.
2023 was a year of turmoil and intrigue for me (and the winery). The growing season was a mix of dry and yet cool weather, with a windy Spring leading to inconsistent flowering (yes, grapes do have flowers) and therefore reduced yields. For Valhalla, it meant that with little notice some of the fruit I was expecting to make into wine wasn't available, and at the same time I put myself out there and took on a few new projects like the Arneis, Pinot Gris, Syrah & Cabernet Merlot. Many of you have been enjoying the Pinot Gris & Arneis (which is nearly all sold out now). But these reds have needed time to come together and are just becoming available to the public now.
The 2023 Cabernet Merlot is a first for me and a nod to the wines I grew up drinking with my parents, and that I continue to raid from their cellar to this day. With the cooler year in the already cool climate of Beechworth yielded some classic characters for these natural sparring partners. The Cabernet brings blackberries, fresh tobacco, bay leaf & spice, whilst the Merlot brings plushness, mulberries and chocolate. Fine, silky tannins create a long and savoury palate fuelled by cassis and cedar flavours that linger in the mouth.
The Syrah is the culmination of years of winemaking and the interplay of site and year. I have been crafting Shiraz from Rutherglen for twenty years, with a yearning to play with fruit from a cooler climate, the chance to play at the edge a little. 2023 gave me that opportunity with a very cool year, but one of the warmer sites within the cooler area of Beechworth. I have stopped using the word Reserve on our new upper level wines, but have used the French name for this variety to pay an homage to its history, but also to show that sometimes Shiraz really is Syrah.
The wine showcases the cooler climate Shiraz fruit from Beechworth. This wine walks the tightrope of its ethereal nature with florals & lifted spice interplaying with the granite driven blue fruits & subtle savoury notes. Whole berries and bunches are part of the natural fermentation with hand plunging and careful crafting all the way through to produce this refined expression of Beechworth Syrah.
WINE REVIEWS
95 Points Durif Reserve 2021 - "Congratulations are in order. When it comes to Durif, the term 'reserve' can mean pushing the envelope. Instead, behold a wine of poise, engaging charm AND cellaring potential. Blueberry, cherry, plum, lavender, rosemary and hazelnut. Expansive and finely edged on the palate with an inviting core of lifted aromatics, fruit, chocolate and a touch of savouriness. Durif’s usually pesky grape tannins are in control, but not aggressively so. It's a subtle difference that allows something for now (drinkability) and something for later. Best of both worlds." Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion 2024.
94 Points Tempranillo Reserve 2021 - "This Rutherglen-based winemaker is exploring nearby North East Victorian regions for grape sourcing with great success. Tempranillo thrives in the Alpine Valleys and this is an excellent, well-priced example. Dark in colour and personality with a deep, spiced black cherry/plum fragrance with forest undergrowth, herbs and bay leaf. A subtle hand with oak gives full and lasting expression to the fruit and well-handled acid/tannin interplay. Well balanced. More, please!" Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion 2024.
92 Points Tempranillo 2022 - "A joven (early-drinking) style of tempranillo that rocks. A joy to drink with a keen emphasis on the brighter, fruitier, spicier side of the Spanish grape with dark cherry, plum, red licorice, rosemary and earth. Fruit surges and explores all the senses while tethered gently to fine, perky tannins. Dangerously drinkable." Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion 2024.
95 Points Riesling 2018 SOLD OUT - "Sourced from Whitlands, one of the highest vineyard sites in Victoria, which is known for producing pure and intense white wines. An arousing scent of concentrated lime with lemon butter and delicate floral aromatics ushers in this complex, but incredibly youthful, four-year-old Riesling. Crisp, dry and tangy, the palate shows hints of toast with green apple and citrus. Chalky in texture and tight in lemony acidity with fabulous focus and drive." Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion 2024.
95 Points Chardonnay Reserve 2019 SOLD OUT - "Sourced from the Nicholson vineyard; hand picked, whole-bunch pressed, fermented and matured in French oak. Shows a confident winemaking hand for a chardonnay of some elegance. Pale yellow and bright. Grapefruit, stone fruit, nougat and preserved lemon perfume is lifted and super inviting. What follows offers plenty of flavour, leesy almond meal texture and overall complexity. Stays with you on a long finish. Nicely detailed throughout with a bright future ahead." Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion 2024.
I was very proud that Valhalla Wines is now considered a 5 star winery in the 2024 James Halliday Wine Companion. With five of our wines scoring over 90/100, and three of them scoring 95/100,
