Lone Star Creek in Woori Yallock, Victoria | Winery/Vineyard

Lone Star Creek

Locality: Woori Yallock, Victoria

Phone: +61 414 282 629

Address: 75 Owens Road 3139 Woori Yallock, VIC, Australia

Website: https://lonestarcreekwines.com.au

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25.01.2022 Our favourite time of day. Tonight’s choice is our 2019 Sauvignon Blanc. 93 points from Campbell Mattison: A soft, almost delicate and certainly mellifluous expression of this variety. Punchy with puply, almost rind-like fruit flavour though its centre but then classically honed through the finish. Texture, of which there is plenty, is paramount here. Have you tried a Yarra Valley Sauvignon Blanc before? You’d better get in quick as it’s an ever diminishing part of the Valley.

25.01.2022 Mother nature has been up to her tricks. For years our Pinot Noir vines produced beautiful plump purple grapesuntil a couple of years ago. But it is renowned for mutating to other types of Pinot sometimes even the white variety, like here where a small patch decided to morph into Pinot Blanc! They’re sprinkled throughout our pinot noir blocks. A wonderful, unusal occurance in our vineyard. Nature never ceases to amaze who knows maybe we’ll try making a small batch, wild grown, Pinot Blanc this season.

25.01.2022 How do you create a wine label? For us we wanted to showcase the features of our vineyard that distinguish our stewardship of the land and represent a sense of place. We just love the original artwork @marlsinthebush created including the landscape, the trees, the creek, the bushland, the rolling hills, the sheep and of course, the vines, which build a picture of sustainable viticulture and wine our vision. The star above watches over the peace and balance between all elements of our occupation. We’re also over the moon with the quality of printing done by MCC Label. A shout out to them for showcasing us on their website! Check out more of their work at http://mccshowcase.com/showcase-items/lone-star-creek/

25.01.2022 When there’s sunshine + a hint of warmer weather, out comes the Pinot Gris! And why not when it’s only a quaffable $20 wine! As Campbell Mattinson says, Lots of colour. Pink into straw into almost-bronze. Dry, tense, impactful wine, as highly strung as they come and impressive funnily enough as a result. Pear, apple, gunmetal and green pineapple characters. Spice too. Not to mention texture. You get a lot of wine, a lot to ruminate on, for a mere $20. One of those ‘Australia...n wine is such an interesting place now’ releases. Rated: 93 Points Tasted: Mar20 Alcohol: 12.5% Price: $20 Closure: Screwcap Drink: 2020 2023 Pick up a few bottles at https://lonestarcreekwines.com.au/product/2019-pinot-gris/

22.01.2022 What’s left when you’ve pressed the grapes to make wine? Grape marc AKA the skins, seeds and stalks that are going to make an ideal addition to our compost in the vineyard. We love it, the vines will love it and it turns out even the @hoddlescreekestate poddies do too.

22.01.2022 A quack quack here. And a quack quack there. The vineyard is teaming with new birdlife at the moment! With the soil full of nutrients and new growth on the vines, the worms and other duck delicacies are in plentiful supply. We sure are lucky to get to be out in nature as we work.

22.01.2022 Echidna sighting season is coming! The springtime is when we find these cute spiny mammals out and about in the vineyard. Often feasting on ants and insects after burrowing away over the winter. The vineyard is quite the wildlife park! Have you come across an echidna before?

21.01.2022 Sometimes you get the shit jobs. Hats off to Micah and Pat for shovelling 2 cubic metres of horse manure to get our first compost brew underway. Thanks team. We’re blending the poo with some grape mark and straw to make a lovely pile full of microbes and nutrients. It takes about a year to break down and then we’ll put all the goodness back into the vineyard. Being off grid we know all about the benefits of compost. Our worm based, household waste disposal system, feeds castings into our garden and parklands 7/24 and they love it.

20.01.2022 It might just look like a tractor but this is our new workhorse. We’re pretty excited to add this bright green number to our vineyard crew. From spraying and slashing to transporting grapes from vine to shed, it’ll be responsible for so many of our year-round vineyard tasks. It’s been a long time coming to upgrade from our trusty old blue New Holland and rusty red Case International to this Deutz-Fahr. ... We now have five tractors in our stable it’s amazing how they accumulate and we think time has come for one of them to move on. Know anyone after a much loved New Holland TN75F tractor?

19.01.2022 Say g’day to Micah our new Vineyard Manager! Let’s get to know him. Here we go: He’s an inner Melb guy, who ventured to the UK and NZ for many years before landing in the Yarra Valley. His passion is working with and manipulating nature to achieve wicked fruit (Just what we like to hear!)... Excited by looking into new ways to grow vines or methods to make the vineyard or production of wines more sustainable. Pinot was his first love but now he’s been tempted by Cabernet and Chardonnay, and wines where the boundaries have been pushed. A mentor once said, don’t we work in this industry to drink the wines we can’t afford. He’d have to agree that drinking some pretty special wines is a big perk! He counts himself pretty lucky getting to work in the beautiful outdoors. When eagles or hawks fly nearby, or he stumbles across a blue tounge or quail, they’ve been some of his best moments in the vineyard. In his downtime he’s watching Luther and War of the Worlds. He’s a mazzive fan of Nordic noir and is champing at the bit for the next release. His playlist is a heavy rotation of Angie McMahon, Phoebe Bridgers and Nas, and a variety of podcasts. Reading Boy Swallowed Universe. No wine dog yet but watch this space! What have we missed? What else do you want to know?!

19.01.2022 We’re in good company at Brunswick Wine Shop! For those of you who love a little detail on what you’re drinking, here’s the juicy fine print. Pinot Noir 2019... Vineyard Notes Clone: Own rooted MV6 - Vines planted in 1999. Winemaking Notes Winemaker: Franco D’Anna at Hoddles Creek Estate Total crush: 182 dozen - zero whole bunch, open tanks. Maturation: nine months in new (25%) & used French Barrique (225l), full malolactic fermentation. Indigenous yeast. No fining or filtration. Contains sulphites Bottled 23 January, 2020. Tasting Notes To Quote Campbell Mattinson at Wine Front: Pinot Noir from the Upper Yarra. Very Upper Yarra. Taut, lean and structural. Red cherry and cranberry with twiggy spice notes and the essence of red roses. It has its pretty side but it’s a dry, structural wine at heart. Very dry. Its best is to come. 92+ points Excellent drinking now and will improve further through to 2027. Vegan friendly: no animal products used. 13.0% alc/vol; Approx. 7.7 standard drinks If this sounds like your cup of Pinot, be sure to pick up a bottle here or online if you’re not within 5km. BTW we’re down to less than half a pallet of this lovely drop.

19.01.2022 Chardonnay accompanied with a cheesy potato bake yummo! That’s on the menu tonight! Hands up if that’s your kind of wine and food combo. Our pup thinks so! (swipe right)

18.01.2022 Blue sky days, cold mornings, bare vines, kookaburras laughing and sheep baaing. It’s great place to call home. Love the Yarra Valley. Hands up if you do too!

16.01.2022 Spring tasks continue. Micah & Pat have been busy strengthing their hammies in the vineyard while bending up and down to desucker the trunks of young vines where you get a lot of new growth. At least there’s a bonus to the physical work of vineyard life.

16.01.2022 The lead up to our new release wines has begun! A positive in the chaos of the current environment. Labels for 2020 have been updated. We also recently popped over to @hoddlescreekestate for a progress tasting with Franco. All spot on and looking really promising. The Pinot Gris has been blended and settling in tanks ready for bottling in a few weeks. This is an exciting time and the anticipation is high as always.... Approximate dates for bottling the rest are pencilled in. Luckily, because stocks are running low on our 2019 Pinot Noir, Lone Star Red and 2018 Chardonnay! (Get in quick if you want to snag the last few cases). Your response to these wines has been incredible, and boy are we grateful for your support during these incredibly trying times. Here’s to the end of 2020 looking a little brighter. We’re aiming for an October release date for our Pinot Gris and December for Lone Star Red. January is the target for our Chardonnay and the very popular Pinot Noir towards Easter 2021. Stay tuned for more tasting updates!

14.01.2022 Every afternoon... I wish! You too?

13.01.2022 Our team here at Lone Star Creek HQ just keeps on growing. Our 18 Wilty ewes are all pregnant thanks to the sterling efforts of Cedric. No prizes for guessing who is who! The drop starts in September we like it a bit wrmer for the mums and bubs. Last season’s lambs have become excellent vineyard mowers. And, we’re hoping to have a NEW vineyard manager coming on board in the next few months. Stay tuned to find out who it is! @ Yarra Valley

13.01.2022 Sprucing up our Airbnb ‘Vine Cottage’ has kept us busy while no guests are to be seen. A lick of paint, some bits and bobs fixed. No doubt we’ll be well into Spring before we reopen but it’s one of the best times of year with budburst occurring.... A wine tasting by the vineyard shed is definitely a must-do and our past guests have just loved the experience. Are you craving a getaway post lockdown? If you’d love to come and stay you can find the link to our Airbnb listing on our website. @ Yarra Valley

11.01.2022 Say G’day to Chris Bendle from DCB Wine - another of our talented Stable Wines crew! Chris has a minimalist hands off approach to winemaking with the belief that the majority of work should be done in the vineyard. With outstanding wines coming out under his 7 year old label we’re pretty stoked to work with a winemaker who cares so much about choosing quality fruit from higher in the Yarra Valley. The result is elegant, affordable wines that are pleasure to drink.... Ultimately, Chris makes wines that he loves and fortunately others seem to appreciate them too, especially the Pinot Noir. Always intriguing and so difficult to perfect, he says. Yet in 2017 Chris nailed it with a Gold medal for his 2016 vintage at the Yara Valley Wine Show. Growing up on the fringes of the Yarra Valley, Chris was bound to delve into wine (or it was public service!). Taking on cellar hand roles at the likes of Mac Forbes and others both here and in Tassie, NZ & the US, he racked up several years of hands-on winemaking experience and honing his palate. It was Franco at Hoddles Creek Estate that gave Chris his big break with a legit winemaking role in 2010. Then in 2013 he dived into creating his own DCB Wine label. And aren’t we all better for it! Great Pinots and Chardonnays keep coming out from Chris. Do yourself a favour and check them out over at https://lonestarcreek.com.au/stable-wines/. It’s our online destination for wines made by talented winemakers using our Lone Star Creek Vineyard’s grapes.

11.01.2022 Before the bud burst there’s the essential prep work. Micah’s been busy on the tractor sweeping and mulching to give the vines the best chance of having the energy to produce incredible grapes later in the season. Putting in the hours now to get the results later! ... (Well here’s hoping there’s just a few uncontrollable variables like weather in the mix but let’s put that aside for now! )

11.01.2022 They’re white, they’re fluffy, and you could say the epitome of spring in #ruralaustralia it’s our little Wiltshire lambs! By the time the grass is high, and the vineyard rows are in need of a good mow, they’ll start pulling their weight and get chomping like the rest of the mob. But for the time being they’ll be spending some quality time with their mums like these cute babies.... What’s your favourite thing about spring? This has got to be one of ours.

10.01.2022 The early bird may catch the worm and also a beautiful sunrise. Better still it means you can put your feet up at the end of the day and enjoy a drink knowing it’s all worthwhile.

09.01.2022 A gorgeous sunset to finish off a day’s work in Sauvignon Blanc vines. With the seasonal pressure being huge this year I’ve spent a fair bit of time on the tractor spraying to keep the pesky mildew at bay. But it’s all worth it to enjoy a refreshing glass of Sauv every now and then, like when I get back home tonight! What’s being opened at yours?

09.01.2022 It might not be your usual pick, but for the Pinot Gris fans out there, we think this drop is one to definitely give a whirl. It’s beautifully bronze in colour and deliciously refreshing with hints of nashi pear, apple and spice. You’ll often find us with a glass day or night when it’s 20+ degrees with some crackers and cheese in hand.... How about you - when would we find you enjoying a glass?

09.01.2022 Break time looks a little different these days! But very grateful we can still keep busy with our jobs around the vineyard. We’ve been finishing off the pruning and now awaiting bud burst - one of the most uplifting times of the year. A sign of new beginnings and the hope for a promising vintage ahead!... Any excuse for something good to look forward to, right?!

07.01.2022 Sometimes it feels like four seasons in a day! But a quick glance out to the vineyard is a surefire way to tell us where we’re up to on the calendar. One spring chore on the agenda this year is snail baiting- it appears the whole valley is suffering an invasion. Micah’s out spreading the bait to stop the little buggers chewing out our lovely young shoots. (See our story) These are a telltale sign it’s early spring the green glow across the rolling hills of vines. A stunning time of year to be in the Yarra Valley. Not long now until a trip out this way might be on the cards for you.

07.01.2022 Oh, what a good review will do for your happiness levels in these times! Thank you for this week’s mood booster @mrbrendanblack! Tonight's wine is the delicious 2019 @lonestarcreek pinot noir from Robin Wood & Gillian Bowers in the Upper Yarra Valley. The vines were planted in 1997 & for the next 20 years they sold their grapes under contract before starting their own label, after not being "satisfied with simply drinking and enjoying wine". The wines are made by Franco D'...Anna @hoddlescreekestate fame, so those familiar with his work would know that the grapes are in good hands. In 2013 Robin & Gillian gave up their professional careers in order to focus on wine full-time, & they also have a small cottage which is available for short stays through Airbnb. I was very impressed with the first @lonestarcreek wine I had - their 2019 Lone Star Red, a 60/40 pinot/shiraz blend - so I had high expectations for their 2019 pinot. I'm happy to say my expectations were more than met, as the pinot noir is incredibly fruity & fragrant (wild strawberry, black & red cherry, raspberry, violets), & has really vibrant acidity. It also has a very silky mouthfeel so it's an absolute pleasure to drink it. & I know about the whole "book/cover" thing but the label is also very cool. Thanks to Robin & Gillian (& Franco) for the wine.

05.01.2022 STABLE WINES GIVEAWAY! Who wants to win 6 wines for their festive celebrations!? The pack includes fab wines from @Valentine_wines, @dcbwine, @journeywines and us to enjoy! All Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes have been grown here at Lone Star Creek Vineyard. ... To enter simply: 1 Follow us @lonestarcreek 2 Tell us in the comments why you’d love to try the wine. 3 Tag who you’d enjoy them with! Get in quick! Entries close Wednesday. Winner announced Christmas Eve. Thanks to those of you’ve already entered on our earlier post. You’re in the running to win!

05.01.2022 Yes, this is another picture of the dam. But damn, it’s beautiful. Ever changing as the morning light moves over it. The perfect scene for a glass of Pinot Noir as we gaze across to the vines where the grapes in that glass grow. If only it were night time not sunrise!

05.01.2022 This is Dom Valentine! The great bloke behind Valentine Wines. He’s part of our Stable Wines crewmaking a top-notch Pinot Noir and Chardonnaywith Lone Star Creek Vineyard’s grapes. Dom’s passion for winemaking led him to complete his Masters of Oenology at the University of Adelaide in 2004. This was after gaining a science degree and experience at Leeuwin Estate and Xanadu Wines in WA. ... The inspiration for his Valentine Wines label was sparked during his vintage experiences in South Africa, Bordeaux, Alsace, and more recently the Rheingau region in 2009 and 2010 working with Weingut Losef Leitz and Weingut Georg Breuer. Dom became intrigued with applying the old-world winemaking lessons learnt there. When he returned to Australia, he established a new home in the Yarra Valley working with his first mentor, Steve Flamsteed, at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander and then Oakridge Wines. Other highlights of Dom’s journey have been collaborating with chefs Matt Stone and Jo Barrett to create collaborative projects, as well as private labels for the McConnell group of restaurants. With wines crafted from his selection of vineyards around Victoria, we’re over the moon Dom chooses Lone Star Creek Vineyard’s grapes for his Yarra Valley wines. Take a look at his exceptional Pinot Noir and Chardonnay over at https://lonestarcreek.com.au/stable-wines/. You’ll be glad you did! ;)

05.01.2022 Look at the new growth! The vines are busily sprouting more shoots on the daily. All in preparation for our 2021 vintage when we’ll be bottling Pinot Noir (seen here), Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and our popular Lone Star Red. The grapes grown here on our 56 hectare property (22 hectares of vines) in the rolling hills of the Upper Yarra Valley are often one of the last in the region to be picked due to our cooler climate. Then they’ll be off the winery to be crafted into fantas...tic wines by some very talented independent winemakers, such as DCB Wine, Journey Wines, First Foot Forward, Valentine Wines and Santolin Wines. This time of year sure is the start of something special for many.

04.01.2022 COMPETITION TIME! To celebrate the launch of The Stable (the home to wines made by winemakers using grapes from Lone Star Creek Vineyard) we’re running a competition! For your chance to WIN a 6 Pack of wines crafted by the likes of Journey Wines, @dcbwine @valentine_wines and us, simply jump over to our Instagram page to enter by Friday.... https://www.instagram.com/lonestarcreek/ This competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with Facebook or Instagram.

04.01.2022 Before and after: These little inflourescence turn into these bunches of plump berries, full of sweet grape juice. It’s always good fun to do a blind berry tasting when they’re ripe and ready to pick. All the great winemakers are blessed with a vineyard palate, able to read the grape and turn it into great wine. Franco is one of the best. To him (and maybe us a little bit) the flavours of each varietal are quite noticeable but for otherswell, we’d love to find out!... Is this something you’d be interested in doing? Who knowswe may do some testing with friends in the new year. Let’s wait and see. Swipe right to see some of the berries from 2020 going into bottle and available soon. Pinot Gris > Pinot Noir > Chardonnay

04.01.2022 This vintage is going to be our BIG #5. Growing grapes has been our jam for 25 years now but we only jumped onto the winemaking scene with our own label 5 years ago. Crafting affordable single vineyard wines from a place we know produces exceptional grapes was a no brainer. It was just a matter of getting to it while managing our 56 hectares (22 under vine)! We saw the likes of @santolinwines, @journeywines, @dcbwine @valentine_wines, @forwardfirstfoot, producing stellar sm...all batch Pinots, Shiraz and Chardonnay from the vineyard, so we knew we had to give it a shot ourselves. With the trusty Franco from @hoddlescreekestate as our winemaker from the get-go, we’ve crafted some drops we’re pretty proud of. We’d love to know which wines have you given a go and enjoyed most? We’re looking to ramp up our volumes as we’re running rather low on wine this year. Thankfully, there’s a few cases left to get us through until the release of our #v2021. You can grab these over on the website while stock lasts. Thanks for the support, folks!

03.01.2022 This drop of bronze coloured Gris is brightening up our week! It’s our first wine of the 2020 vintage to make its way into bottle. By October it’ll be ready to sip. But first it’s time to lay it down to rest. The next three months are all about the wine developing its classic bouquet of nashi pear and apple, and complexities of flavour. ... In the meantime, some of you have been polishing off the 2019 Pinot Gris, which is drinking beautifully. Thank you! If you haven’t picked up a bottle yet, there’s a few cases remaining over on the website.

03.01.2022 Pop goes the Chardonnay! Our C Block is right on time, shooting out leaves in an almost fluro green colour. A sign that sping is well and truly here. We usually wait for 80% bud burst across this block before calling it. Just a week earlier the first activity began. The Pinots & Syrah will be out next week. Last is nearly always the Sauvignon Blanc, likely around the last week of September. But we’ll call it for the vineyard when the Pinot Noir has popped. Then hang onto your hats and watch the growth! There’s nothing but change in life on the land.

03.01.2022 The face of someone who’s very happy to reunite with my Melbourne family over a few bottles of wine soon! Who’s on your ‘catch up over wine’ list?