The words “Wild Yeast” are written across the back of Rick McIntyre’s T-shirt. It’s not just the obvious meaning for the co-owner and winemaker of Moorooduc Estate on the Mornington Peninsula. Yes, McIntyre is an enthusiastic advocate of indigenous or wild yeast as the fermentation catalyst for his wines, but he’s also an accomplished breadmaker.

McIntyre is one of the doctors who have found their way to wine. He’s a surgeon, so his hands are as important for the day job he’s slowly easing out of as they are for his part-time career as baker and master ravioli creator for Jill’s at Moorooduc, the restaurant run by his wife and co-proprietor. Moorooduc Estate is a family affair: daughter Kate is a budding Master of Wine with a background as a marketer in the Victorian wine industry, looking after the Moorooduc Estate wines.

McIntyre is a modern Maurice O’Shea: twinkling eyes shining behind glasses; the impish enthusiasm and curiosity to explore and experiment; the same skill for blending and making exceptional, individual wines. For McIntyre, it is working with discrete parcels and ferments that provides the mosaic of flavours, textures and characters to his chardonnays and pinot noirs.

Fermenting wines using wild yeast is a risky game because not all ferments behave – some add texture, character and funk, while others, well, they just go wild. The art and the craft is knowing which batches to include and, more importantly, which to exclude in the creation of the three tiers of Moorooduc Estate wines – the entry-level Devil Bend Creek, the Estate range and the pinnacle, The Moorooduc. McIntyre concentrates almost solely on the Burgundian varieties of chardonnay and pinot noir. However, he also dabbles with pinot gris – for the cellar door – and shiraz – McIntyre’s nod at climate change and the possibility that one day his site may be more suited to shiraz.

McIntyre’s wines have evolved, with vine maturity, exhaustive experimentation and the accumulation of 25 years’ experience, all culminating in the current Moorooduc Estate wines which are really hitting the mark. The 2006 Devil Bend Creek Chardonnay is fresh and vital, with lovely white stone-fruit flavours and a subtle background of winemaking influences, while the ’06 Estate Chardonnay is rich and more complex yet retains fruit purity and freshness. The 2006 The Moorooduc stands tall as one of the best chardonnays in Australia, with an intricate palate profile that comfortably combines power, finesse, complexity, clarity, rich texture and palate weight with a long-lasting, almost ethereal finish.

The trio of Moorooduc pinots is no less impressive. The 2007 Devil Bend Creek, drawn from estate fruit and local growers, displays vibrant red fruit as well as just a touch of mushroom and game. The 2006 Moorooduc Estate Pinot Noir takes a big step up with more weight and character, leaving the 2006 The Moorooduc standing proud with a wondrous interplay between fruit intensity (wild berries and black cherry) and winemaking characters – more game, earth and rustic flavours, texture and spice.

Over the years, McIntyre has supported the development of Moorooduc Estate with contract winemaking, but he now confines his extracurricular pursuits to Martin Spedding’s increasingly impressive Ten Minutes by Tractor portfolio. Spedding shares McIntyre’s enthusiasm for wild yeast and subtle Burgundian winemaking, with the 10X wines displaying a clear and distinct terroir of their Main Ridge site.

With the Australian industry increasingly dominated by large, global conglomerates, it’s refreshing to taste wines that clearly speak of place and purpose. McIntyre stands as one of Australia’s most thoughtful, caring and sensitive winemakers, his wines a wonderful expression of his individual philosophy and respect for Burgundian winemaking principles.

WORDS PETER BOURNE PHOTOGRAPHY MOOROODUC ESTATE

This article appeared in the June/July 2008 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.