Chardonnays and Pinots from the bushfire year

It is almost two years since I enjoyed a blind tasting of (mostly) Australian Pinot Noir with Tom Carson, winemaker at Yabby Lake in Australia's Mornington Peninsula (profiled here by Jancis while he was chief winemaker at Yering Station in the Yarra Valley). The previous occasion was during the first-ever Landmark Australia tutorial, held in the Barossa Valley, when Tom gave an excellent summary of Pinot Noir in Australia and the climatic factors that influence the choice of site, not to mention a fascinating tasting to illustrate his overview.

On this second occasion I had to travel only to...