What the locals are loving: Rob Dolan Wines

Conveniently located as a day trip from Melbourne, Rob Dolan Wines is on the map for fans of quality Yarra Valley chardonnay and pinot noir.

The Rob Dolan Wines cellar door is just a hop, skip and jump from Melbourne, or as Rob says, “we’re only 25 minutes from the MCG!”. That makes this winery a convenient – and extremely picturesque – place to get a taste of the Yarra Valley.

Rob Dolan started his own wine label in 2012 and he believes he’s worked out how to get the best wines out of the Yarra Valley: “It’s the old story, if you don’t have quality fruit you’re not going to make quality wine,” he says. That’s why he has spent decades in the region establishing relationships with growers and finding the best grapes from right across the area. “The relationship with growers is vital,” he says. “The Yarra is a vast area so a vineyard at one end of the valley – say in Dixons Creek – makes a totally different chardonnay than a vineyard at the top end of the valley in say Woori Yallock. The Dixons Creek area is much drier with about half the rainfall of the top end.” Soil types across the region are also significantly different. “Our best red vineyard – would you believe – is on the edge of suburbia near Lilydale at Chirnside Park,” Rob says. “That’s very hungry country on a very rocky type of soil but that’s a fantastic site for reds and totally different styles of wines come out of there than the higher parts of the valley.”