At YarraLoch the vineyards are managed with the aim of producing the best wines, made to the highest level of care, the most exacting standards and attention to detail. Australian vineyards typically grow all their grape varieties on the same site. They might do one or two good wines but the rest are ordinary. You need to suit the variety to the site. YarraLoch's Stephen Wood intuitively understood that unique microclimes are suited to different wine grapes and established his operations astride three unique sub regions of the Yarra Valley.

He identified terroirs that suited the wines he wanted to make. The coldest is Whittlesea, where he grows chardonnay, merlot and shiraz, in the hope it will give him the peppery Northern Rhone-style fruit. The hottest is Kangaroo Ground, between Eltham and Tullamarine, where he grows cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. Between the two, climatically, is Coldstream, where YarraLoch grows 4½ hectares of pinot noir and chardonnay on a steep, north-facing slope.