James Halliday’s 2024 Wine of the Year
2021 Yangarra Estate Vineyard Old Vine Grenache
James Suckling Top 100 World Wines 2024
#90 Yangarra 2022 Roux Beaute Roussanne
James Suckling’s 2024 Australian Wine of the Year 2023
2021 Yangarra Ovitelli Grenache
James Suckling Top 100 Australian Wines 2020
100 points & No.9 Yangarra Grenache McLaren Vale High Sands 2019
Hosted by Peter Fraser, Chief Winemaker
Masterclass: 5.30pm, 14 Wines with nibbles, $95
Dinner: 7.30pm, Champagnes & 4 Courses, $245
(Private dining room - dinner limited to 14 guests)
Wednesday May 28th
Young Gun of Wine - 2022 Old Vineyard of the Year
Yangarra High Sands Vineyard
Listed in The Real Review Top Wineries of Australia 2024
Awarded #4 in Halliday’s Top 100 Wineries of 2024
Awarded #2 in Halliday’s Top 100 Wineries of 2023
Yangarra's viticulturist, Michael Lane on their vineyard management
“We have 40 individual blocks, each managed with a specific management program to deliver the desired outcome for each variety and each block.”
“Our philosophy is to encourage biological diversity within the soil, which promotes symbiotic pathways to facilitate the uptake by our vines of the soil’s native minerals. We believe this results in wines that best showcase their unique sense of place.”
“In our time working with Yangarra, it has been the last five years that we are truly starting to see these characteristics become more and more pronounced. It’s a culmination of a lot of one percenters, adjustments to our techniques and attention to detail.”
Yangarra High Sands Bush Vines
The Wine List
First Course
2023 Estate Roussanne
This is quite a wine. It’s both intensely flavoured and intensely characterful, and as a result I suspect that it won’t be for everyone. But wow, really, it kind of blows me away that you can pick a wine like this off the shelf for $38. It’s a bit sherry-like, and stony, and floral, and briny, and driven by citrus and nectarine, and at the very least, savoury more than it is fruity. And yet it’s intense. There’s a creamy, cedary, almost mint-like aspect but these characters are washed through with brine, and by the rocky dryness of the finish, and by the inflections of burnt butter and chestnut. It’s all quite arresting. And compelling.
95 points Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, Sep 2024
2023 Roux Beaute Roussanne
Wonderfully complex and enticing notes of Meyer lemons, honeysuckle, orange blossoms and talcum powder. The palate is medium- to full-bodied with a phenolic grip from seven months on the skins, giving notes of chamomile tea, sea salt and quince. A very complex and finely integrated wine with a fresh backbone. Excellent. Drink or hold.
97 points , Ryan Montgomery, JamesSuckling.com
2023 Ovitelli Blanc (New Release)
Second Course
2023 Estate Grenache Shiraz Mourvedre
A delightful elegant and expressive medium-bodied wine from Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale. It was gently treated from the outset to preserve the delicate fruit characters of this cool vintage. To that end, it was matured in a mix of old French oak puncheons, ceramic eggs and amphora for about 8 months. It’s balanced with dry chalky characters merging with the bright red fruits of the varieties. It has structure and definition. I could drink a bit of this.
95 points, Ray Jordan, Winepilot
2023 Old Vine Grenache
This is prettily lifted, with cherry, cranberry, rosehip, dried orange peel, wild raspberry and red florals. It’s a gloriously fine and elegant expression of this cuvée, but it has tannic drive, line and length, savouriness, flavour depth and detail. Excellent.
96 points, Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
2023 Ovitelli Grenache
Bright ruby and purple in the glass. Raspberry, crushed terracotta and dried woody herb aromatics. Palate sings with fresh, just-picked raspberry fruits, as that sweet core evolves we see dusty earth, anise and dried rosemary notes build along the line. Tannins are powerful with a fine grained texture, driving the length and ensuring it builds power right to the finish
95 points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
2022 Hickinbotham Grenache
(HALLIDAY TOP 100 WINES OF 2024 - TOP RED WINES OVER $50)
A silk sheet of dry tannins and astute acidity. A millpond of mouth watering moreishness. This is the next level Australian grenache, it's delicate and powerful, seductive and confident. It’s drinking like a dream! Serve with crispy salt and pepper whole quail and check you are still breathing, cause you might just be in heaven.
98 points, Shanteh Wale, Winepilot
Third Course
2023 Estate Shiraz (New Release)
2023 King’s Wood Shiraz
Impenetrable core, deep ruby to the rim. Full nose of blackberry and blueberry with roasting coffee and bitter chocolate notes. Palate holds a mirror to the nose but has further savoury meaty undertones that create a wonderful depth and umami character. Flows incredibly long, tannins finely ripened to ensure that line carries without showing any exertion, the finish a fan of complexity and poise
95 points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
2022 Ironheart Shiraz
Floral and perfumed with an underlying power, showing notes of mulberries, wild blackberries, Damson plums and cured meat. The palate is full-bodied with seamless tannins and bright acidity, giving robust notes of dark cherries, iodine, mocha, violets and ferric earth. Well balanced and structured. Very serious. Drink or hold
96 points, Ryan Montgomery, JamesSuckling.com
2021 Ironheart Shiraz
This wine has a fuller body and more obvious extract than its elegant King's Wood sibling. Firmer tannins, too. There are heady aromas of violets, licorice, charcuterie and boysenberries. There is a hint of reduction and barrel-ferment smokiness marking the mid-palate, but this is a classy, polished shiraz with immense flavors and personality. It is clearly built for the mid-term cellar. In '22 this shiraz may well be the superior variety from this site. From biodynamically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but best from 2027.
96 points, Ned Goodwin, JamesSuckling.com
Fourth Course
2023 High Sands Grenache
Vibrant ruby and purple, youthful and bright in the glass. Blackberry pastille, Chinese five spice, and pastrami aromas. Palate is instantly alive with power and intensity yet a youthful vibrancy. Red and black berry fruits sit in the central pylon, strung from there we see a mélange of powdered spices, curing meats and earthy undertones. Tannins are prodigious in their power but never stray beyond the required tension, allow the full textural joy of this wine to carry to an almost limitless end. A wine of juxtaposition, carrying a lightness of being that belies its power and intensity
98 points, Stuart Knox, The Real Review
2021 High Sands Grenache
One of the great grenache. Comes from a high-altitude vineyard planted in 1946 into deep sandy soils. There were 50% whole berries, used with the wild yeast ferment in open fermenters with a longer maceration period. Matured in a mix of Austrian and French oak foudres, puncheons and ceramic eggs. Captures the sweet succulence of the vintage with high end perfumes a feature. Medium bodied but extraordinarily rich and complex with layers of flavours building a powerful and very long palate profile. Great wine.
99 points, Ray Jordan, Winepilot
2020 High Sands Grenache
From the 1.7ha Block 31, the highest section of the 1946 bush vines. 50% whole berries, wild yeast open-fermented; matured in a foudre and ceramic eggs for 11 months. Truly great wines add something new on each taste; here, there's an ethereal, otherworldly purity to the lingering finish and aftertaste. Drink to 2050.
99 points, James Halliday, Weekend Australian