NSW Distribution
Behn (Payten) and Troy (Jones) are two Healesville High School Graduates producing minimal intervention wines in the Yarra Valley. Behn’s dad Pete runs the vineyard side of things and has a long history working in organic vineyards and takes the philosophy into the vineyard.
The Payten and Jones home block is in the upper elevations of the Yarra Valley and planted exclusively to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The home block is dry grown, a rarity in the Yarra Valley which means a crop is not guaranteed every vintage. The home block is the source of fruit for the Single Vineyard Pinot and Chardonnay. The Valley Vignerons fruit comes from lower elevation; all vineyards are managed by Pete, and these wines are deliberately made to be immediately enjoyed and offer extreme value.
Winemaking varies markedly from most other wineries in the valley, for example there are soft tannins and low acid, balancing the length of the wine instead with faint bitterness and residual co2, creating freshness layered with texture. All the wines are unfined, mostly unfiltered or just minimal. Only addition of So2 is just at bottling or not at all. Oak used to complex not to overwhelm, sustainable, minimal, real. Leuconoe and Major Kong are forays into the unknown, whole-bunches, Sulphur free…ultimately these wines have to have the depth to be talked about by the cognoscenti, yet still be appreciated and loved by anyone who drinks them.
