The gold standard for Australia’s classic blend, this six-bottle, four-vintage vertical of Yalumba’s Signature should bolster your cellar or replace the wines you’ve already opened. In this pack, you’ll receive three bottles of the 2015 vintage and one bottle each of the 2012, 2010 and 2009 vintages.
The Signature Cabernet Shiraz was first made in 1962. Each release is a ‘salute to an employee or person who has made a significant contribution to the culture and traditions of the company’. The Cabernet and Shiraz grapes derive from old vine material in the Eden Valley and Barossa Valley. After batch-vinification, the wine completes fermentation in barrel, followed by maturation in Yalumba-coopered new and seasoned American and French oak. It is typified by rich plum/dark chocolate/panforte aromas and flavours, dense, chalky tannins, superb generosity of fruit and underlying savoury oak. Langton's Classified since 2010. Promoted to the 'Outstanding' category in 2018.
Deep red colour with a good purple tint and a mellow bouquet of earthy, nutty, faintly spicy Barossa character rather than varietal. It's full-bodied and very savoury, with abundant drying, earthy tannins and a rich, lingering finish and aftertaste. An interesting style, down-playing primary fruit and emphasising savouriness and tannin, but not oaky as they used to be. The tannins are mouthcoating and supple, ripe and classy. Good concentration and a very long carry. An impressive and delicious wine. (52% cabernet, 42% shiraz; about 20% new oak. Signatory is viticulturist Darrell Kruger)
95 points, The Real Review (May 2019)
This couldn’t be more ocker. Succulent, long, medium weight and hemmed with beautiful tannins, this is a good release of this wine and revels in a little elegance over assumed grunt, though you won’t miss the tongue grapple of the finish. Blueberries, dusty notes, ferrous character, clove, and some cocoa powder. Travels long and well. Delivers that sweet and earthy mesh of both varieties so clearly. It’s very charming.
94+ points, The Wine Front (February 2020)
A seamless affair. Tobacco, blackcurrant, plum and malty oak sing in beautiful harmony, firm tannin singing from the same integrated songbook. Mint and dried herb notes make qualified contributions too. It doesn't have a lot of spunk, but it puts not a foot wrong.
94 points, Wine Companion (February 2019)
Spent 20 months in high quality French, Hungarian and American oak barrels made in Yalumba's own onsite cooperage. This is one of the richest and most opulent vintages of The Signature in the 41 years since the first was made. While the blackcurrant and blackberry fruit flavours dominate the oak, the wine has a certain elegant juiciness that offers drinking at any stage over the next 20+ years, as the tannins are supple and fine, the overall balance perfect.
96 points, Wine Companion (March 2014)
Rich but tightly held. Dense blackcurrant, mocha, boysenberry and blackberry flavours, slipped with spicy/smoky oak and tobacco-like notes. Not lacking in either density or elegance. Juicy through the finish. Fine, complex tannin. Cork permitting, it should mature beautifully.
95 points, The Wine Front (December 2014)
Deep red/purple colour; the aroma spoilt by a faint cork-wood whiff. The palate is also a tiny bit stripped, as the result of low-level TCA cork taint. It's a big, super-ripe, opulent wine. Second bottle: much superior. The same colour but with a spotlessly clean, rich, captivating aroma of black fruits and aniseed, not minty nor oaky, and the palate is beautifully focused, full-bodied, very long and superbly structured. An outstanding Signature, and fitting that Robert Hill-Smith is the signatory.
95 points, The Real Review (January 2015)
A 52/48% blend, matured in a combination of French, Hungarian and American oak, 35% new. The strengths of the vintage have been clearly transcribed. Medium-bodied but powerful. Blackcurrant, dried tobacco, sawdusty oak and mint. Freshness has been maintained. Tannin, oak, fruit and acid work as one. Beautiful example of a traditional Australian style.
96 points, Wine Companion (January 2014)
This is an upper echelon release of Signature. Fresh and boysenberried. Perfectly pitched smoky oak. Juicy but firm. Dark heart of fruit and yet jubey. Reminiscent of 1999. Balance and power but not overblown or monolithic. Pure Barossa. Pitched to perfection. There’s an elegance to this, despite or on top of its power.
95 points, The Wine Front (September 2013)
The Signature is on the back, this year it is Clive Weston, for long employed by Negociants NZ. The choice of 20 months' maceration in Yalumba-coopered French, Hungarian and American oak has not impacted as much as anticipated on the medium to full-bodied palate with its rich blackcurrant and plum fruit, and ripe tannins.
94 points, Wine Companion (September 2013)
Colonel William Light, the South Australian colony’s Surveyor-General, named the Barossa in 1837 after the site of an English victory over the French in the Spanish Peninsular War. In the mid-1800’s Silesian and English immigrants settled in the area. The Barossa itself comprises two distinct sub-regions: Eden Valley and the warmer Barossa Valley floor at 270m.The Barossa Valley enjoys a warm Mediterranean climate characterised by hot dry summers and relatively low rainfall. Cool sea breezes from the Gulf of St Vincent modify the temperature, however hot northerly winds can occasionally dominate creating considerable vine stress. Many older established vineyards are dry-grown, but supplementary irrigation is also extensively used. The valley is comprised of rich brown soils and alluvial sands. A long history of uninterrupted viticulture in the area means the Barossa valley is home to Australia’s largest concentration of old-vine Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre with many over 100 years old. Although most famous for Shiraz, the Barossa can also produce fragrant and deliciously fruity Grenache blends and beautifully rich, chocolatey Cabernet Sauvignons.
Samuel Smith established Yalumba in 1849 and 165 years later descendant Robert Hill Smith now presides over Australia's oldest family owned wine company. Yalumba owns vineyards and sources fruit primarily in the Barossa and Coonawarra. Robert Hill-Smith manages to combine conservatism and tradition with up-to-date winemaking technology and thinking. Yalumba produces a considerable number of different wines across the price-point spectrum from a multitude of varieties, all with a focus on quality, varietal and regional expression. The strong winemaking team is headed up by Louisa Rose, a brilliantly intuitive winemaker whose white wines are some of the best in the country.
