Viticulturist of the Year

TOM CARSON | SERRAT | YARRA VALLEY | VICTORIA

WINNING Viticulturalist of the Year was somewhat perplexing for Tom Carson. While he spends as much time as anyone tending the vines at his Yarra Valley winery Serrat, as far as he’s concerned, the job of viticulturalist and winemaker aren’t that separate. “We’re wine growers,” he says. “Our job is to translate what happens in the vineyard into the bottle.”

But despite his protestations to the contrary, Tom’s commitment to viticulture at his “tiny, two-bit winery” is obvious. Vintages in France’s Burgundy region early in his winemaking career were formative and inspired not only his attitude to wine and his respect for terroir, but also the way he planted his vineyards. Like in Europe, the vines at Serrat (a Catalonian word meaning high density planting) are planted at 8800 per hectare – more than four times Australia’s average density. Each vine is then managed so it grows only about a kilo of fruit, which is just enough to make one bottle of wine.

“We believe that less crop per vine produces better balanced, more intense and higher quality fruit and therefore higher quality wine,” he says. By close planting, Tom, his wife Nadège, and fellow vigneron Kate Thurgood ensure they’re still using the land productively.

For Tom, “viticulture is everything” when it comes to making great wine. “Anyone can make a glass of wine out of grapes,” he says, but in order to make wines that are “special, distinctive, that have an authenticity and a transparency to them, wines that leap out of the glass and really express their quality and their personality,” it begins in the vineyard.

This also means planting the right varieties for the soil and climate. Tom recognises Serrat, which is a few kilometres past Yarra Glen on the Yarra Valley floor, as “more of a red wine site” and has focused on pinot noir, grenache, shiraz, nebbiolo, barbera and malbec since the first hectare was planted in 2001. The exception is chardonnay (“I think Valley Floor chardonnay’s got great potential”) and there are some smatterings of viognier and grenache blanc, too.

As well as winning Viticulturalist of the Year, Tom was a finalist for Winemaker of the Year and Serrat for Winery of the Year, and had wines shortlisted in two varietal categories. He says it’s nice to get that recognition. “Sometimes you bottle amazing wines and nobody takes any notice of them and you’re like, ‘What? Didn’t you taste them?’ So, when it does come around, it’s fantastic.

“At Serrat, we do everything we can to produce the best possible fruit, grab it at the right moment and then do our best in the winery to make it all come together. We’re always here doing it. Everything. It’s day to day, every day.” Anna Webster

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Serrat Shiraz Viognier 2021, Yarra Valley 98 points

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Serrat Fourre-Tout 2021, Yarra Valley

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