Yarra Yering Dry Red No.2 2024

REAL REVIEW WINERY OF THE YEAR!

Complex and layered; sweet and savoury all at once. The fragrance is a melting pot of violets, cranberry, plums, a whisker of bramble and fragrant five spice. Moderate in weight; the summer pudding fruits come in all colours, dialling up the flavour. There is cigar box and cardamom spice lending intrigue and a dry spice finish coupled by firm yet fine tannins that ably support the fruit.

Fruit was hand-picked, chilled overnight then transferred across a sorting table and destemmed directly to the Yarra Yering half-tonne openfermenters. As much whole berry as possible is retained to encourage perfume. A small portion of fermenters had frozen Viognier skins; tiny yields this year, added to the bottom. The wine was aged for 15 months in French oak barriques, 30% new before blending and bottling. 98.5% SHIRAZ, 0.5% MARSANNE, 0.5% MATARO, 0.5% VIOGNIER

98 Points – Stuart Knox, The Real Review

97 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

The Dry Red No. 2 is Yarra Yering’s ode to the Rhône, a co-fermented blend with a distinctly Australian accent - layered, poised, and utterly seductive.

Originally dreamed up by the visionary Dr Bailey Carrodus, this wine is 96% Shiraz rounded out with flecks of Marsanne, Mataro and Viognier - an old-world blueprint reimagined through a Yarra Valley lens. As always, the winemaking is precise: hand-picked fruit, whole berries to boost fragrance, a few handfuls of frozen Viognier skins and Marsanne bunches added to select fermenters, then 15 months in fine French oak to knit it all together.

Complex from the first swirl - black cherry, licorice, iodine, graphite - before opening into a wine of seamless texture and savoury length. In previous years it’s already taken out Shiraz of the Year and Red Wine of the Year in the Halliday Wine Companion, and it’s not hard to see why.

This is elegant, age-worthy Australian Shiraz at the very top of its game. One for collectors, one for the table, and one that Dr Carrodus would surely raise a glass to.