20++/20 points - Matthew Jukes, June 2021
I am so passionate about the blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz that, back in 2006, I started an annual competition in Australia with Aussie wine scribe and great friend Tyson Stelzer, entitled The Great Australian Red, to determine the finest wine that is made from what I call, ‘the blend that defines Australia’. I believe that this partnership makes some of the most legendary red wines on earth. Penfolds Bin 389, Wolf Blass Black Label and Yalumba’s own Signature are three awe-inspiring interpretations of this historic style of fine red wine. Back in 2014, an unlabelled 2012 vintage wine from Yalumba won TGAR and the next year the very same wine won the title again. The chances of this happening are akin to a lottery win. This wine was eventually released as 2012 Yalumba The Caley - Yalumba’s inaugural, super-premium, flagship red wine. Each release since has been nothing short of epic. I tasted the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and my featured and soon to be released 2016 the other day and declared it the finest five consecutive vintage ‘vertical’ I have ever tasted. I awarded the 2012 a perfect 20/20 score and this wine’s subsequent vintages have never dipped below 19/20. The 2016 arrives in the autumn and you can reserve your stock now. A maximum of 250 cases is made so it is one of the rarest great red wines on earth.
99 points - Tyson Stelzer
69% Coonawarra Menzies Ming D Block cabernet sauvignon, 25% Barossa Valley Nuriootpa shiraz planted 1901, 6% Eden Valley shiraz planted 1971. Wild ferment to start. Matured 21 months in 25% new French oak barriques and hogsheads. Yalumba began blending Coonawarra cabernet with Barossa shiraz more than a half century ago. This is one of the greatest expressions of this great Australian blend of recent decades. Perfect, compact, fragrant blackcurrant and blackberry fruit depth pauses time as it hovers motionless for minutes, propelled by the most intricate, chalk mineral framework of perfectly interlocked fruit and French oak tannins. A vintage to hark back to for another half century yet.
