Yass Valley Wines

Yass Valley Wines was established in 1978 by Peter Griffiths.  When Anne Hillier and Mick Withers purchased the property in 1991, they began re-working the vineyards and establishing new vineyards with different varieties.  Over the years Mick won a number of awards because of his care and attention to detail in wine making, and Anne’s care of the vineyard.  Since Mick’s passing in 2011 from Mesothelioma, Anne has continued with the help of a great team of assistants, one of whom helped to prepare this summary.We are in Murrumbateman Cool Climate Wine country and so that makes a difference in the kinds of wine we make. We are at around 600 metres here and that is classified as cool for growing grapes. There are around 28 wineries in this region.The temperature in summer can be high but our main ripening period is around March/April when it is cooler around 20 to 23 degrees Celsius – this is often the premium temperature for making premium cool climate wine from the ripened grapes.  We were the first in the district to have planted the Barbera grape- although we believe that recently there may have been another winery that has planted the grape. Our vineyard stands on a property of around 40 acres. The wine maker has made our wines with a minimum of fining agents, and with a view that our wines are for people to enjoy to the maximum- so he has carefully crafted them for good drinking, flavour and to complement all of your favourite meals.Here at Yass Valley Wines, as you can see, we have the café and so our wines have been especially crafted so that they complement the food we serve in our café. Our menu changes with each season, so our wines have to complement a wide range of foods.  All our wines are made from grapes grown on the property.This is important because for example in order for our wines to complement the food, our Riesling and our Traminer have been made on the slightly dryer side- so they are not in the more traditional sweeter German style. Our Chardonnay Semillon has not been oaked so that it will complement many dishes.