Cabernet Shiraz The Caley, Yalumba 2016

This has a very impressive sense of composure, offering a very attractive, cedary and floral nose with deep violets and a wealth of forest wood, bracken and blueberries, as well as plums. The palate has intensely ripe, assertive fruit flavors with a succulent, dense and rich delivery of black-cherry, cassis and blackberry flavors. Density with focus and a strong drive at the finish. Long and juicy with real freshness. A blend of 71% Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon and 29% Barossa shiraz. Drink or hold.

Mid crimson with a pale rim. The two elements are really beautifully integrated now. Lovely appetising South Australian red with no very obvious tannin and a good mix of sweetness and saltiness on the palate. Really very lovely already, Seems much more approachable than the 2015 at the same age. Briary but fruity too with real leathery lift and an interesting note of sage I don't remember picking up on a wine before. That massive Australian fruit really has been tamed in this vintage! I must confess that I was not always convinced by earlier vintages of this wine, launched in 2017, but I am really convinced by this blend. Long and reverberant. But then it should be good at this price! Evolved and broachable but still with lots to give. I'm guessing at its lifespan since it's too early to say. 2021 - 2029

Yalumba's 2016 The Caley Cabernet & Shiraz is a blend of 71% Cabernet (from Coonawarra) and 29% Shiraz (from Barossa—Lightpass and Eden Valley) aged 21 months in French oak barriques and hogsheads (25% new). Marked by hints of menthol and sage, it also offers up deep cassis and blackberry fruit, plus notes of cedar and vanilla. In the mouth, it's medium to full-bodied and amply concentrated but tightly wound, with plush tannins wrapped around a ripe core of fruit—this needs time to relax and unfurl. Hints of licorice appear on the finish, speaking of ripe Syrah and joining persistent notes of dark fruit. Clearly this has a lot going for it, so give it several years in the cellar before trying a bottle.

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.

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.