Bellbrae Estate Pinot Noir crowned best at Geelong Wine Show

Bellbrae Estate has been recognised at this year’s Geelong Wine Show awards, taking out the Geelong Cellar Door Trophy for Best Pinot Noir.

The vineyard has been producing distinctive cool-climate wines on the Surf Coast’s hinterland for more than 20 years.

Winemaker David Crawford said the win was “validation for what we’re doing in both vineyard and winery”.

Plans for the award-winning Bellbrae Estate 2021 Tetaz Pinot Noir first started almost five years ago and Crawford said he was happy to see those decisions “starting to come off”.

Bellbrae Estate is the only vineyard situated on the Great Ocean Road, but Crawford said it was a region with a great deal of wine history.

In the late 1800s, Swiss settler Charles Louis Tetaz established several success vineyards in the area.

The site where he lived is now the present home of Bellbrae Estate.

“This whole area from where we are right through to Mt Duneed, was all market gardens. It was all vineyards and orchards, and it was one of the fruit bowls for Melbourne,” Crawford said.

“There’s still some 100-year-old orchards reportedly up around Moriac.”

Indeed, the fruit for the award-winning wine was sourced from a small section of Bellbrae Estate’s oldest Pinor Noir vineyard and pays homage to Tetaz’s belief in the region and the quality wines it can produce.

“The Tatez label is probably the best two barrels of the vintage we can find,” Crawford said.

But those looking to get their hands on this award-winning Pinot Noir, will have to wait until its release next year.

Crawford said the decision to hold back the wine two years before release was already “starting to pay dividends”.

“I’m trying to make much more textual wines and wines that are much better with food.

“I’m trying to add more layers, more complexity to our wines.

“We’re holding them back as best possible so we’re realising some of the potential.

“Textural wines take a little bit longer to come round in the bottle.”

However, Bellbrae Estate’s 2020 Tetaz Pinot Noir is now available to purchase.

An important precursor to the acclaimed 2021 wine, the 2020 Pinot Noir took out a Gold Medal in last year’s Geelong Wine Show, only just falling short of the top prize.

It is also a 97-point James Halliday wine.

Crawford said, Bellbrae Estate also have several new summer releases headed for its Cellar Door.

“We’re ramping up for a good summer at Cellar Door. We’ll be doing a lot of activities so keep an eye on the socials.

“We’re trying to give people coming down the Great Ocean Road good experiences.

“We have a degustation menu, we’ll be doing barrel tours over the summer, vineyard tours and really upping the menu to balance out the new wines that we’ve got on offer.”

Bellbrae Estate is at 520 Great Ocean Rd, Bellbrae, five minutes from Torquay’s Bells Beach.

For more information, head to bellbraeestate.com.au.