White wax cap over DIAM cork. Toolangi’s F Block is a one-hectare plot perched on the highest, easternmost sector of the 11-hectare Dixon’s Creek vineyard. Nestled in the corner, within touching distance of the Toolangi State Forest to the northeast and in the afternoon shadow of a large hill to the south, it’s a well-sheltered plot. This position helps preserve the high levels of natural acidity critical to maintaining balance from a site famed for powerful flavour. The soils are shallow and rocky, with more white clay than lower down, which Kaspar Hermann credits with the wine’s sculpted, chalky personality. Yields are always low, rarely providing more than seven or eight barrels, and in this poor flowering year, Hermann had enough for just five. The 21-year-old vines are Gingin clone and produce thick-skinned, full-throated fruit with plenty of spicy nuance and phenolic structure. 

The wines from 2024 show a distinct regional charm and a pleasing ripeness to complement the chalky, mineral edge. As always with Toolangi’s ‘grand cru’, the grapes were hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed into barriques (20% new); wild ferment with around a third of the wine going through malo. If this isn’t one of Yarra Valley’s finest Chardonnays, then we don’t know wine. 

White wax cap over DIAM cork. Toolangi’s F Block is a one-acre plot perched on the highest, easternmost sector of the 11-hectare Dixon’s Creek vineyard. Nestled in the corner, within touching distance of the Toolangi State Forest to the northeast and in the afternoon shadow of a large hill to the south, it’s a well-sheltered plot. This position helps preserve the high levels of natural acidity critical to maintaining balance from a site famed for powerful flavour. The soils are shallow and rocky, with more white clay than lower down, which Kaspar Hermann credits with the wine’s sculpted, chalky personality. Yields are always low, rarely providing more than seven or eight barrels, and in this poor flowering year, Hermann had enough for just five. The 21-year-old vines are Gingin clone and produce thick-skinned, full-throated fruit with plenty of spicy nuance and phenolic structure. 

F Block Chardonnay is Hermann’s favourite wine to make; he even prunes the block himself. 2023’s wet spring provided challenges, but the team’s determination paid off with ripe, vibrant fruit from a mild, kind harvest period. The bunches were pressed to barrique (20%) for spontaneous fermentation with full solids, the wine underwent full malolactic conversion and matured on lees in barrel with no sulphur added until bottling. 2023 is a beautifully tense, energetic rendition of this wine that doesn’t want for flavour. Flecked with grapefruit and barrel spice, it is seamless, effortless and compellingly driven Yarra Chardonnay. 

Toolangi Vineyard stands among the Yarra Valley’s finest Chardonnay sites. Located in the Dixon’s Creek subregion and bordered by the Toolangi State Forest, this sheltered, low-yielding vineyard is planted to Gingin, Mendoza, and I10V3 clones on fine clay-loam soils. Year after year, it produces wines of distinct character and a strong sense of place.

Pauls Lane Chardonnay is sourced from just 20 rows within D Block on the 11-hectare property, all planted to the I10V3 clone when the vineyard was established in 1995. The fruit was handpicked on 15th February, then crushed, destemmed, and pressed to French oak (10%) for fermentation, followed by nine months’ maturation on lees. Winemaker Kaspar Hermann avoids malolactic conversion for this cuvée, as the I10V3 clone naturally achieves an ideal balance of acidity and flavour.

The 2025 release is another standout—showcasing pure citrus and stone fruit flavours, bright zesty acidity, and subtle spice, all carried through a long finish with a distinctive saline edge. A finely tuned, full-expression Chardonnay from one of the Yarra’s go-to producers.

Stop the presses. Already an impressive Yarra Pinot, from the 2024 vintage this label has upped the stakes. It is now made from Toolangi’s E Block Pinot Noir, just 10 rows of 25-year-old MV6 clone vines identified as growing the property’s most impressive and expressive Pinot. These rows are a direct continuation of the Paul’s Lane parcel to the east, so Kaspar Hermann is convinced something unique is happening beneath the surface. 

This block delivers lower-than-average yields for this already moderate-yielding site, and the fruit holds markedly more drive and intensity. The fruit fermented with 50% bunches over 15 days before being pressed to used French oak barriques (just one new oak barrel accounts for 10%) for nine months’ maturation. Until 2024, this wine was labelled E Block and cost twice as much. So, here you are getting all the wine at half the price. Philip Rich’s note below captures the wine well; it’s a bright, vivid, juicy, complex, single-vineyard Yarra Pinot from a great season, site and grower. Only 200 bottles made. 

The E Block—home to 18-year-old vines of the MV6 clone—has been identified as growing the best of the best Pinot Noir Toolangi produces. It is this block that supplies both the Paul’s Lane and this reserve bottling. Specifically, here the fruit is sourced from rows 26 to 45. Hermann's 2020 was partially de-stemmed (60% whole bunch and 40% whole berry) before a short cold soak and then natural fermentation. All up the wine spent four weeks on skins before being pressed to French oak (30% new) for 10 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered.