Friends of Punch comes to play

The current drought situation in Northern Victoria and New South Wales has brought back memories of the last years of the first decade of this century when drought ravaged basically all of Victoria, a set of conditions that was so bad, we saw one of the worst bushfires in history.

The damage was catastrophic, including at many vineyards and wineries.

Many lost vineyards, buildings and their crops for the 2009 vintage at the very least.

Some simply couldn’t recover from it. Wineries are tough to run and keep afloat at the best of times, while others wrote the year off and began planning for 2010.

Punch, in the Yarra Valley, stood out for their approach to the circumstances. They reached out to growers around the country and as far afield as New Zealand. The response was some of the finest producers providing fruit for them to make a set of wines under a new label known as “Friends of Punch”.

The Lance family, who owns Punch, established what was once known as the Diamond Valley vineyard in the Yarra Valley in 1976.

After selling the Diamond Valley brand to the Rathbone group in the early 2000s, they retained some of the vineyards for their own use, which includes the close planted Pinot Noir site, which is one of the finest in the country.

James Lance and his wife Claire began leasing the site from James’ parents in 2005 and began producing wine under the Punch label.

While they produce exceptional Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon, it is the label that was born out of their resilience amidst adversity that we are focusing on today.

While they used the best fruit they could find anywhere in the early days, they have slowly brought the net in a little closer to home and most of the fruit that goes in to the Friends of Punch wines now comes from vineyards nearby in the Yarra Valley.

The wines are at times more playful and experimental than the Punch label, but they share the same quality and attention to detail found in the estate grown wines.

Friends of Punch Semillon 2016 – $29
Semillon is not the trendiest grape variety at the moment. We have seen many growers try to get creative and generate some interest in their wines. Unfortunately, most have disappointed; too much oak, over working the lees for texture, picking too early or too late. This wine is an exception to all of that. Sourced from the Rising Vineyard in the Yarra Valley, this spends 10 months in oak, and on lees (only stirred once). Neither element is overt though, the crisp citrus acidity of Semillon is retained and helps to the wine flow easily across the palate. Lees and oak give the texture a little breadth and creaminess but it is well restrained within the structure. It is delicious and makes you want to come back for another glass, which at the end of the day is the fundamental criteria for any wine.