Yangarra Estate Vineyard Shiraz, McLaren Vale

The Yangarra Shiraz style is not typical of McLaren Vale, being more akin to the cool-climate Australian or Rhône Valley French styles. The Yangarra single vineyard estate, planted in the late 1990s in the Kangarilla sub-region, has 12 individual Shiraz blocks at 150-180m, each one defined by different aspects and subtle variations of the sand and ironstone soils that overlie the ancient North Maslin Sands geological formation.

Yangarra is the Australian operation of Jackson Family Wines, one of California’s leading premium wine producers.

Typically, the Estate Vineyard Shiraz is fermented with 10% whole bunches and up to 50% whole berries. The fruit is mechanically sorted and cold-soaked until it ferments ‘wild’ (or spontaneously) in open-topped vessels, utilising the yeasts that came in on the grapes from the vineyard. Fermentation includes a careful regime of plunging and rack and return. The resulting wine is kept on lees in French oak (25% new; 75% older) for 12 months and is filtered, but not fined, before bottling.