letuffeau.com
(Link)
~ “Nothing but the vines: viticulture 101.” ~
Tim Brown, Winemaker … well, more Viticulturalist
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de la Beche
Taradale
Macedon Ranges
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~ Tasting ~
&
Meet the Winemaker
Saturday 21st March
3.00 - 5.00pm
Tim Brown & (La Vie) de la Beche
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2025 Macedon Ranges Aligote
2025 Macedon Ranges Chardonnay
2024 Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir
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“After a number of conversations with Tim Brown, a viticulturalist and now ‘winemaker’, I am convinced that de la Beche is one of the most important viticultural projects presently being embarked on in Victoria.
Perhaps I could simply leave this offer here: low-production, Chardonnay & Pinot Noir from ultra high-density plantings in the Macedon Ranges. That would be enough to get me across the line and buying a case, and I am sure more than a few of you, dear Readers, would join me! The project, however, deserves more by way of introduction.
Tim inherited and worked with his father on a small, nay tiny (0.5ha!), vineyard near Taradale in the Macedon Ranges. Recently, Tim wholesale started a replanting project to make real his vineyard philosophies that he had hitherto practiced at other people’s wineries. If you have a dream, you should live it yourself.
Tim has worked everywhere. If there is an important Victorian vineyard, Tim acted as a consultant in the vines. Bindi, Elanto, Jasper Hill, Tellurian, Stoniers, etc. … not to mention Domaine Jean-Marc Vincent (Santenay, Burgundy) … and a few tip top secret, in the pipeline, projects.
I jest that Tim is the hardly the winemaker, he is simply the viticulturalist. For him: the fruit is paramount. How the vines express the season and his vineyard and the soils in which it grows. It is into these vines that he pours his time and effort; in planting and nurturing them initially, and now into managing them. Hence, while the winery work is not an afterthought, he hardly thinks of himself as a ‘winemaker’; all the work is done up to the moment the fruit is brought in from the vineyard. The job then is simply not to fuck up what the vines (through his care) have yielded!
I will let Tim describe his meticulous, borderline obsessive vineyard work below. Please read through his very detailed explicatory notes.
Suffice to say these are very special wines.
To those of you out there that remember Diamond Valley Vineyards/Punch Wines; Bindi (before they got expensive and hard-to-get), or Balgownie it is heyday … look to these wines. Buy them, cellar them; then when they are $120/bottle in five years (and right in ‘the zone’), think: I got there first.”
— David
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~ please note : discounts are automatically applied at the digital check-out! ~
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The Whites
I
de la Beche 2025 Macedon Ranges Aligote
200 bottles produced - drink in only
“Appearing on a wine list in the Nicholas Building soon.”
— David
II
de la Beche 2025 Macedon Ranges Chardonnay
608 bottles produced
(Shelf Price: $75.00)
Offer: $66.00
6-pack : $360.00 ($60/bottle)
“This 2025 Macedon Ranges Chardonnay displays a rather restrained nose at first; a saline, marine coolness with a gentle waft of serious oak- and lees-derived toasted cereal, cinnamon scroll, and hazelnuts. Pretentious swirling starts to bring out a nose rather more reminiscent of Chassagne-Montrachet than Hautes-Cotes de Macedon: ripe pear, pithy pomelo/grapefruit, rosemary oil, and a deeper kind of minerality ... gunflint?
The vine density is immediately apparent from the wine’s immense palate presence; this is an unashamedly compact, dense wine; very Chassagne! The texture is simply wonderful: a flash of pleasant bitterness melds into a moreish, mouth-wateringly salty-sweet finish. Ample but pleasantly restrained yellow orchard fruit, lees-derived toasted oats and fresh pastry, and a deep, powerful mineral note (flint again) which echoes the nose. There is then a steeliness which slowly drifts off into the long finish.
Perhaps because Tim is responsible, in some part, for the greatness of many 'greats', there is a certain self-confidence expressed in the wine; this isn't trying to be anything else other than bloody brilliant Chardy.”
— Nick (Mr. Chardy)
Order here
(Link)
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The Red
III
de la Beche 2024 Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir
1,800 bottles produced
(Shelf Price: $75.00)
Offer: $66.00
6-pack : $360.00 ($60/bottle)
“This 2024 Macedon Ranges Pinot Noir, from a tiny vineyard planted at very high density (15,000 vines/ha), opens slightly surly with a faint haze of reduction blurring the aromatic profile. Aeration reveals the significant depth the high density plantings have granted this wine: violets and deep red florals; then black cherry and compacted dark soil, together with faint echoes of dried orange peel, sage, and crushed granite. There is significant lift here as well as a wealth of veiled herbal and mineral aromatics that require coaxing from the glass. The palate is chiselled and focused up front, never really toeing over the line to medium-bodied; gaining weight and silken texture through to the middle then fanning pleasingly out with a sumptuous finish. Tarragon and Indies spices, red cherry and cranberry; couverture and walnut; then deeper, black fruits. There is a sense of array, a hand placing all the pieces in their correct order. Very fine.
Returning to the glass there are wonderful lingering aromatics of dried rose-petal (very bottom-of-the-rose-bush … one thinks of Savigny-les-Beaune), earth, and cranberry. A delight.”
— David
Order here
(Link)
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Viticultural Notes
“High Density Vineyards - The Concept
New world vineyards (and warmer regions of the old world) are typically planted at density of between 1500 to 3000 vines/ha. This planting density allows the use of larger machinery for efficiency and cost savings, eg: utility cabin tractors, machine harvesters, pre pruners, and multi-row sprayers.
High density vineyards (10,000 vines/ha being; the classic 1m x 1m format) are on the other hand traditionally planted in specific cooler regions of France; Burgundy, Champagne, and the the Loire Valley.
The narrow row width requires specific equipment that is built in small factories at low volumes. Such equipment is not readily available and is expensive compared to conventional equipment so the first challenge when setting up HD vines is accessing this equipment.
Competition & Yields
High density vineyards have 3-to-6 times the vines/ha than conventionally planted sites. Consequently, there is increased between-vine competition for moisture and nutrients (in four directions!) that reduces yield-per-vine. Lower yields manifest with complexity too: there is a reduction in bunch size and berry size, as well as number of bunches-per-vine number when compared to conventional plantings. This three-fold lowering of yields results in an increased potential to boost tannins and concentrate flavours.
Typically a conventionally planted vineyard yields 2 to 3kg of grapes per vine. An High Density vineyard yield-per-vine is around 0.5kg. However, the overall yield of the vineyard may be the same between an High Density vineyard and a conventionally planted one because of increased number of vines per hectare!
Shading
As the climate warms, bringing increased temperature during and sunlight intensity during the growing season, there comes a need to mitigate such factors to avoid vine stress and sun burn on the grapes.
The application of sunburn protection sprays (essentially suncream for vines) is now widely used in conventional viticulture. In the High Density vineyard, however, where the canopy may be 1.5x higher than row width, there is a provision of cross-shading. This naturally creates an ideal dappled light environment that greatly reduces the damage of sunlight and the effects of heat stress on the vines.
Root Depth
It has been widely accepted that vines with deeper vine roots tend to make better wines. Such vines are able to not only be more resilient to environmental (especially hydric) stresses, but also more keenly express their site.
In an High Density vineyard the strong four-fold vine competition, combined with organic farming practices such as under vine cultivation for weed management (where superficial vine roots are also removed), tends to drive root growth deeper than in a conventionally planted vineyard. This process is faster too.”
— Tim Brown, Winemaker & Viticulturalist
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The new Le Tuffeau
2026
This week, by the glass
Joshua Cooper 2024 Central Victoria Chardonnay ‘Dash Farms’
Domaine Tempier 2023 Bandol Rose
Chateau Boucasse 2020 Madiran
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Please join us for a drink soon. Reservations preferred.
Bookings and after-6.00pm access: (03) 9419 3867
Tue. 11.00 am–6.00 pm
Wed.–Sat. 11.00 am–11.00 pm
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If you would like any of the above, would like to come by for a private appointment, or just have some questions — please let us know.