Description
Yarra Yering is one of the oldest and most beautiful vineyards in the Yarra Valley of Victoria, consisting of 28 hectares of vines located at the foot of the Warramate Hills in the Gruyere district. Dr Bailey Carrodus established the winery in 1969 and is credited as one of the driving forces in reviving winemaking in this region. The 1973 vintage saw the production of the first vintage of Dry Red Wines – No’s 1 & 2, two of this country’s greatest wines, both featuring in Langton’s classification of Australian wines. Yarra Yering quickly gained an international reputation for quality and individuality and for the next 35 years Dr Carrodus made his wines to great critical and commercial success. The unirrigated vines produce elegant, complex and powerful wines. Approachable in their youth they have the ability to develop in the bottle for many years.
Within only three years of taking the helm at Yarra Yering, winemaker Sarah Crowe received one of the wine industry’s highest honours, named “Winemaker of the Year” for 2017 by Australia’s most respected wine writer and critic, James Halliday – “She has done a fabulous job with what was her first full vintage. Just an amazing, amazing job.” Sarah is the first woman to receive this award with two Yarra Yering vintage red wines receiving 99 points and four vintage red wines received 98 out of a possible 100 points.
About the 2018 vintage: A late start to harvest due to good rainfall and a cool to mild summer without any heat spikes to advance ripeness. Picking lasted 10 weeks, at a leisurely pace, delivering grapes with beautiful flavour development coupled with good acid retention. “Shiraz was the star in 2018. At the annual Good Friday barbecue, the whisper was that it was a Shiraz year. And that turned out to be true. It was a warmer year but with good yields and also good vine canopies to protect the fruit from the sun. The vines were well balanced without much manipulation. It was the best Shiraz vintage I’ve had in my seven years at Yarra Yering.” – Sarah Crowe
The Underhill Shiraz is from a single block of Shiraz planted in 1973; 8 acres at the western extremity of the Yarra Yering vineyard. One of the Yarra Yering wines to give itself up sooner rather than later it will often look wonderful at 5-10 years of age. This vineyard has a proven pedigree and it will continue to evolve for many more years under suitable cellaring conditions should you want to leave it for 10+ years.
Hand harvested, with bunches sorted and then de-stemmed with no crushing to retain whole berries. Some stalks are added back to increase tannin, structure and interest. A component of whole bunch fermentation gives some volume and plush-ness to the fruit palate. Air bag pressed to release the last fermenting juice from the many whole berries remaining. The wine is then aged for 12 months in French oak puncheons (500L), only 25% new oak.
From the winemaker: “A perfumed cool climate Shiraz; deliciously medium bodied with a lick of aniseed spice. Bright boysenberry fruits bring energy to the palate and some black plums a more traditional fruit concentration. As always from this block we see some cured meat and a smoke-char interest driving the back palate. A solid core of fruit, the oak is a faint seasoning that plays second fiddle to the fruit.”
Winner – Champion Wine of Show 2019 National Wine Show.
96 points, Campbell Mattinson for 2021 Halliday Wine Companion “A wine with long fingers and arms. It was grown on a single block of Shiraz, planted in ’73. It eats elegance for breakfast, berried fruit for lunch, herb and wood spice notes for afters. Plum, char, smoked herbs, fresh red cherries, a slip of creamy/smoky oak. The balance of this wine is an experience in itself. Best of all: it pushes out gloriously through the finish.”
95 points, Mike Bennie, The Wine Front “Supple, long, savoury and bright, game meat and just ripe red berries in a cavalcade of flavour and delicious texture, rolls long, wonderful, with authority and a general sense of quality. Lithe and tissue-pappery tannins a treat, the feel just righteous. It’s a wine that hits the glass with a slosh of ‘yes!’, with the first whiff on the first nostril off an arm’s length. The first sip a ‘yep!’, and you’re on your way. It feels fancy and good, complex and interesting, easy on the palate and showing us all what shiraz can do when great.”
RRP $132 OUR PRICE $109.99
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