Musings And Moments: Yalumba The Caley

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN RED 2014 The Trophy for ‘The Great Australian Red’ 2014

BRISBANE 2015 GOLD-TOP Table, Shiraz/Cabernet Blends 2012 older

THE GREAT AUSTRALIAN RED 2015 The Tonnellerie Saint Martin Trophy for the Best Wine $60 and Over

“The bouquet has a glorious profusion of cassis, blackberry and black cherry fruits – elements that are precisely mirrored by the palate. But it’s the way this wine caresses the mouth that is so special, the tannins polished, the oak judged to perfection. drink to 2042.”
98 POINTS, James Halliday, 18 March 2017, The Weekend Australian Magazine

“While many Australian winemakers are opting for single-vineyard, single-varietal wines for their top labels, Yalumba is deliberately harking back to the 19th and 20th century traditions of the multi-district, multi-varietal blend. The Coonawarra component brings gorgeous blackcurrant perfume and fine, grippy tannins to the wine, while the Barossa brings generous, mouth-filling richness. An impressive red that will develop very well in the cellar over decades.”
Max Allen, 28 April 2017, The Australian Financial Review Magazine

“The Caley is a truly great claret. Aromatically it’s beguiling rather than bombastic, an ethereal fragrance drawing you deeper in to the wine. It’s beautifully polished and impeccably poised. This thing is weighted like a jockey set for a big Spring, not a single gram of unnecessary fat. Barossa shiraz puts just enough supple cladding on the well-constructed frame Coonawarra cabernet provides. It’s layered and finely etched, beautifully tapered and finely threaded with micro-fine tannins.This is a wine that more than lives up to the high hopes held for it.”
Nick Ryan, 7 March, 2017, The Australian

“The Caley, a blend of Coonawarra Cabernet (52 per cent) and Barossa Shiraz (48 per cent) is a serious riff on that great red blend that made Australian wine famous. It is the apex of Yalumba’s unwavering commitment since the late 1800s to what is one Australia’s great wine styles.

It is a wine built for the long haul, and age gracefully it will. It is just a beautiful wine. Filigreed with stunning fruit purity and balance. Plush cassis and black berry fruits mesh seamlessly with French oak, and while the purity of its fruit is the driving force, there is a sense of completeness to its form. It is a wine very comfortable in its own skin, complex and elegant with cascading, gravelly tannins falling through the wine like shafts of light. Long finish and undoubtedly a great wine.

At a time when the emphasis is on single site wines, it is important to acknowledge that some of this country’s greatest wines have been and continue to be multi-regional blends. There is a certain gestalt to these blends. The sensation that the whole is more than the sum of their parts.”
David Brookes, April 2015, The Adelaide Review

“Bright crimson colour. The bouquet is a glorious, vibrant combination of cassis, red fruits and mulberry. This wine is opulence itself without the curses of over-ripeness or overt oak, and the tannins are supremely fine. The Caley would provide great pleasure now if served with rib of prime beef, but it will certainly outlive me and, dare I say, probably all those involved in its creation. This first vintage of The Caley will claim a place as one of Australia’s great wines and will be, I hope, the foundation of a line of that will capture attention world-wide. ($349.00) To be released shortly.”
Lester Jesberg, 20 February 2017, winewise.com.au

“Yalumba's new flagship red is a special occasion wine: an Aussie classic in the making, it will prove to be worth the money. Most signature wines use power of personality to impress. ‘The Caley’ is elegant and understated, fascinating and complex with satiny smooth texture, seamless mulberry, blackcurrant and wild bramble flavours, amazing finesse and subtlety. For a pensive mood.”
Peter Forrestal, May 2017, Money Magazine