In 1838, the Ryrie brothers, Scottish pioneers, planted the first vines in Victoria on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, in a verdant valley they named after the indigenous word "Yering." Nearly two centuries later, Yering Station remains Victoria's oldest vineyard and one of the rare estates to have survived every crisis, phylloxera, depression, two world wars, to emerge today as one of the Yarra Valley's absolute references.
History / Heritage
In 1850, the Swiss-French Paul de Castella bought the property and expanded it, importing vines from the great Bordeaux estates including Château Lafite. In 1859, he had the old stone cellar built that today houses the tasting room. In 1889, Yering Station became the only estate from outside the northern hemisphere to win a Grand Prix at the Paris Universal Exhibition, a distinction unique to this day. After decades of decline linked to economic upheavals, the Rathbone family purchased the property in 1996 and launched an ambitious replanting and modernisation programme.
The Terroir
The Yarra Valley is Victoria's flagship wine region for cool-climate styles: its cool days, cold nights, and regular rainfall allow for slow ripening that preserves natural acidity and aromatic complexity. Yering Station extends across five different sites in Yarra Glen and Coldstream, on varied soils (red clay, grey silt, alluvium) that offer a palette of complementary terroirs. Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Shiraz-Viognier find an ideal setting here.
Viticulture and Winemaking
Under the guidance of managing director Darren Rathbone and head winemaker Brendan Hawker, the house practises precision viticulture, harnessing modern technologies to better interpret each parcel. Harvests are manual for the superior cuvées. The range is structured across several tiers: Estate (entry-level, approachable), Reserve (selected parcels), and the flagship Scarlett. Yarrabank, co-produced with the Champagne house Devaux since 1996, is Australia's reference for the traditional method, crafted since its first vintage with the same Champenois rigour.
Wines / Key Cuvées
The Yering Station Reserve Chardonnay is a demonstration of what the Yarra Valley can produce at its finest in white: peach, citrus, hazelnut, with bright acidity and well-integrated oak ageing. The Reserve Pinot Noir, fleshy and elegant, expresses red cherry, damp earth, and spice with a persistence that places it among Australia's finest Pinot Noirs. Scarlett is the top cuvée, an ambitious red blending the estate's finest parcels, aged patiently before bottling.
Yering Station is a living institution, a link between the pioneers of the 19th century and the winemakers of the 21st. Two centuries of Yarra Valley in every bottle.
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