Yarra Valley Tasting

First time I have been to the Yarra Valley and things that stick out is how busy it is! It was frustrating fighting your way to the counter and getting attention.
Pretty disappointed with the wines in general and struggled to find one I liked.
I didn't take any notes and most of this is from memory so vintages and exact label names are all a bit hazy. This isn't a very good account for tasting notes, but more a post just to capture the memory of the day.
Visited Yering Station first and tried a Pinot Gris which was a bit watery and tasted phenolic with a browned apple aftertaste. This might be a bit harsh, but it was not particularly good. The two Pinot Noir wines I tried were also quite poor being a bit green and under ripe with one having a very smokey palate.
The Shiraz Viognier was the best wine I tried there and it was still quite young, but had good fruit weight, intensity and ripeness with a toasty palate. It was their latest release vintage and I think it was the 2004.
Stopped at Domain Chandon for lunch and had the Domaine Chandon Vintage Brut 2003 with our meal of antipasto and morrocan lamb tagine. This sparkling was a bit acidic and steely. It was okay, but nothing special or of interest to me. Did not try any other wines here as I am not the biggest fan of sparklings or at least I am very fussy!
Next stop was Rochford Wines where we tried a Gerwurztraminer and a Pinot Gris. They were probably the best white wines of the day, but again I wasn't that impressed.
The Gerwurzt had some nice herbal and melon aromas and the Pinot Gris was a nice tight style, but still lacked a bit of intensity. More detailed descriptions are a little bit hazy now! I then tried the Macedon Ranges Reserve Pinot Noir 2003 which was quite a big style for a pinot. I didn't like it, but I can't remember the wine anymore! We then had the Yarra Valley Reserve Pinot Noir 2003 which seemed slightly oxidised. It was a new bottle so I don't know if it was a case of it being a crap wine or random bottle oxidation.
Last winery we went to was DeBortoli which had the best wines of the day.
Tried a Yarra Valley Chardonnay which I don't remember the vintage of or much about the wine as I passed it off as not thinking much of it! Then had a Yarra Valley Pinot Noir which was a nice clean wine with sour cherry and some toffee jubiness to it. It was quite a commercial style and was a reasonable wine for $16. Tasted the 2004 Shiraz Viognier which I liked much more than the 2003 which I couldn't stand!
This was the best wine of the day with good fruit, spice and intensity. Then tasted the 2001 Shiraz and 2001 Cabernet. Both were quite good wines and I particularly liked the Cabernet, but I can't remember why now!
Debortoli also had the 1997 Melba Reserve on tasting which was well past it tasting a bit porty.
We then payed $5 for a sticky tasting which included Noble One 2003, 8 yr old Tawny Port, Old Boys Tawny Port and Black Noble. The two wines of note were the Noble One and Black Noble. The Noble One 2003 was very refined with some apricot and marmalade citrus characters. Always a good buy.
The Black Noble was a blend of Pedro Ximinez and botyritised semillion. It was very interesting with aromas of soy, malt, raisins and coffee. It had a very sickly sweet taste. Interesting sticky to try, but a little with some vanilla icecream would probably be as much as I could handle of the sweet syrupness.
We finished the day by visiting the Yarra Valley Diary Farm, but by the time we had walked from the car to the shed/shop/tasting area we felt sick from the smell of cow manure so tasting cheese and wine was the last thing we wanted to do so we went and had a coffee in Yarra Glen instead.