Helmut Konecsny, owner of Rochford Wines, has purchased Toolangi Vineyards and has immediately started ringing in the changes. Of course it’s early days, but from what we have seen so far, the future for Toolangi now looks very, very bright. Apart from the new packaging, Konecsny and his team seem very serious about rejuvenating and upgrading the work in the vines. This was after all, one of the few Yarra producers to engage the services of renowned soil scientist Claude Bourguignon on his recent visit to Australia, and the Toolangi vineyard was one of the sites he analysed. In terms of winemaking, Toolangi will now control its own destiny with the talented and experienced Marc Lunt at the helm. Lunt is a Burgundy nut who has done multiple vintages at such legendary estates as Armand Rousseau and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. He is determined to bring more cohesiveness to the winemaking and to get the best from the Toolangi vineyard.
Another positive is that there are currently only two tiers of wine—the Toolangi and the Paul’s Lane labels. This first set of wines under the new team hail from 2018. Under Lunt’s regime there is no inoculation for any of the wines, the Pinots take in a large portion of whole bunch ferments, and the reds are neither fined nor filtered. Lunt also takes a balanced approach to new oak, so even the top label is capped at 20% new barrels. It’s very early days, yet Lunt’s first set of wines makes a statement—a very good statement. Going forward it will be fascinating to see the consequences of Konecsny’s and Lunt’s intention to apply the time honoured vigneron model on the Toolangi wines. One thing we’re sure of right now—this 2018 release represents a fascinating twist in the story. BIBENDUM
