About This Wine
(Cabernet Sauvignon 65%, Cabernet Franc 12%, Merlot 10%, Malbec 7%, Petit Verdot 6%) It reinforces the merits of blending the Bordeaux varieties - especially in the Yarra Valley. A wine of delightfully exotic and enticing aromas of blackcurrant, pastille, tapenade, violets, plums and almost Christmas cake-like richness precedes a more restrained layer of graphite and cigar box. The palate is effortlessly elegant and restrained with serious depth and structure. Young and deceptively delicate initially, time in the glass sees the mid-palate really fill out and the savoury structure sits almost invisibly into the deep, spicy fruit. Shows real promise and, as always, will provide great joy both now and in 15-20 years.
| Type | Red Wine |
|---|---|
| Varietal(s) | Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc Merlot Malbec Petit Verdot |
| Country | Australia |
| Region | Yarra Valley |
| Brand | Yeringberg |
| Vintage | 2016 |
Yarra Valley Wine
The Yarra Valley wine region is the most important area of wine production in Victoria today, and with its proximity to Melbourne, also the most visited in the state.
Yarra Valley is split into the Upper Yarra and the valley floor. The Upper Yarra is cooler in climate due to its elevation and coupled with younger, fertile, red soils produces most of the region’s notable varietals: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The valley floor is warmer and has predominantly grey soils with pockets of granite and limestone.
Pinot noir has long been considered a notoriously difficult variety to grow. However, the cool climate and longer growing seasons of the Yarra Valley allow the fruit to develop full flavoured and ripe character.
Chardonnay in the past has long been associated with a deep oily, buttery style that experiences full malolactic fermentation and great amounts of oak. This style has since fallen out of favour and wine makers in the Yarra Valley have capitalized on this trend to produce leaner, acid driven Chardonnays that are closer in style to those from Burgundy.
The Wine Front – Plum, cassis, golden fruit cake, violets, dusty cedar and tobacco, a feathering of spice. Medium bodied, richly fruited, yet subdued, with silky but densely packed tannin, cool fresh raspberry acidity, distinctly savoury black olive tapanade/tobacco sorts of stuff, and a superb long finish where a rainbow of fruit splashes and cascades down the old neck, then grainy tannin and tobacco brings you gently back down to earth. Supremely stylish, age-worthy Cabernet.
Huon Hooke – The colour is relatively light: full red with a tinge of purple. Superb freshness and elegance, medium-bodied and delicious, complex and multi-layered. A great wine, with a magical array of flavours. All manner of berries and spices, dried flowers, dried herbs and dried fruits. Silky soft tannins. Refreshing on the finish. Not such a big fruit style, but deliciously drinkable and moreish.