The icon wineries of the Yarra Valley - think names like Mount Mary, Yeringberg and Yarra Yering - can sometimes seem to exist in a parallel universe. You see their names on auction classifications and "best of the best" lists, but unless you're a regular buyer from their mailing list or happen to frequent the right restaurants, they exist more in the mind than in the mouth.

They are the hidden treasures of Australian Wine - steadfast in their pursuit of elegance and quality and, in many ways, understatement. Quiet confidence, I think might be the phrase.

Wantirna Estate is a key part of this elite league of wineries. It's also part of winemaker Maryann Egan calls a "sentimental and historical inclusion" of the Yarra Valley; if Wantirna Estate started afresh today it probably wouldn't be referred to as part of the Yarra Valley because it sits quite a distance from the valley's main hub, but it will always be true that Wantirna Estate was one of the wineries to put the modern Yarra Valley on the wine map.

- Campbell Mattinson, Gourmet Traveller Wine, Feb 2011