Description
“Venerable vines, fastidious viticulture and cutting-edge winemaking kit. It’s a killer combination, and the reason why Yangarra is producing some of the best wines in the Vale right now.” – Max Allen, The Weekend Australian.
Yangarra is a single-vineyard estate situated in the northeast of the McLaren Vale region, South Australia. Yangarra’s combination of ancient geology, higher altitude and Mediterranean climate provide the ideal growing conditions for the best grape varieties of the southern Rhône.
This cutting edge McLaren Vale producer is making delicious energetic estate grown wines from it’s biodynamic vineyards. We have been bowled over by every wine in their line up … a rare occurrence in this business!
From the winemaker: “There are 87 hectares of vineyards at Yangarra, of which 47 are Shiraz made up of thirteen individual blocks. Each block is defined by different aspects and subtle variations of the sand and Ironstone soils that overlie the ancient North Maslin Sands geological formation. Spread amongst an extra 70 hectares of creeks, native vegetation and native corridors. Our estate has twelve individual blocks of Shiraz. Shiraz from our Estate vineyard adopts more of a cooler climate expression than the typical McLaren Vale style thanks to the vineyards elevation and the cooling night breezes from the nearby Southern Lofty, but retains concentration and complexity.”
“The 2019 growing season was a very dry, which resulted in incredibly low yields. We had a relatively warm lead up to the ripening period, which produced a very condensed and fast harvest. These late ripening varieties faired very well in a season like this, giving rise to concentration, freshness of flavour and marked natural acidity.
“Sourced from six blocks within the estate. Approximately 50% on Sand, 50% on Ironstone. 50% whole berries. We do a portion of our ferments with approximately 20% whole bunches. A splash of Viognier. Cold Soak. Open Fermenters. Plunged. Wild yeast ferment. No pressings are used in this wine. Kept on lees in 20% new French oak, 80% older French oak for 10 months.”
This superb shiraz has a rich core of dark fruits, blueberries, chicory, juniper and dark chocolate. It’s big, voluptuous and brilliantly balanced with great fruit sweetness, grippy finely grained tannins and fresh acidity. Perfect drinking now but will cellar for another 6-8 years if preferred. If you like big, rich McLaren Vale reds, this one’s for you.
