I have tasted the wines of Mac Forbes a number of times over the years, and was never entirely convinced. Bursting onto the wine scene in 2004 after stints at Mount Mary and Southcorp, he was and is a pivotal producer showcasing an alternative expression of the Yarra Valley from the establishment players of Coldstream Hills, Mount Mary and Yarra Yering. With less reliance on wood and earlier picking, the styles of wine were entirely different to what we had grown used to.
Alcohols were lower, acidities brighter and the colours lighter. Fruit profiles were more high toned, structures angular and cutting and palates less fleshy, full or worked. The emphasis was on intense, crystalline fruit, and as little winemaking artifice as possible. The problem for me was that i believed the fruit was picked to early and the resultant wines, sour. First sip was lovely, if bracing, but i found that my palate tired very quickly. But they were and are, incredibly popular.
The 2022 vintage is, however, a watershed moment for Mac Forbes. As one of the Yarra Valley’s cornerstone producers and certainly the cornerstone producer in the contemporary context, he has managed to hold true to his style, and produce wines that are not only intense, bright, tense, mineral, saline and savoury, but also possess a core of perfectly ripe fruit. “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do sir?” as John Maynard-Keynes would have it.
It is such a pleasure to taste a range of wines that possess the tension of opposites. Shapes that are round are cut through with laser precision, sweet fruit that is offset by tertiary notes of herb, spice and flowers. The whites are so pure, light on their feet and crystalline, yet have fleshy mid palates and textural impact from dry extract. Finishing long and tense, with mouthwatering mineral salts. Tension, always tension. The reds are so mildly coloured, you’d be forgiven for thinking they might be light or lacking in flavour or heft. They certainly aren’t full bodied, but who cares? Intense and bright, the fruit is sweet yet tangy and the structures are derived from savoury skin tannin with a little bit of silk from the whole bunches. The style is very European, in that the tannins are derived from the skins and stems, and have as much impact on flavour as they do on structure. The acidity is there to be sure, but it’s no longer the main feature, just another player, in a rich ensemble.
There is no greater pleasure in wine tasting than when expectations are met or exceeded. Producers make adjustments, mature, markets change and our palates are always searching and evolving. Who amongst us is the same as we were twenty years ago, deriving enjoyment from the same pleasures and arriving at the same conclusions? Mac Forbes has stayed true to his style, and has certainly influenced the broader market and his more conservative peers, yet the wines have finally tipped their hat to classicism in their pursuit of ripeness and a tension of opposites.
