08-05-2025
Barossa's Yalumba winery unlocks its showstopping $550 Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, $520 2015 Caley as part of new ‘museum release'
Australia's oldest family winery has raided its museum stocks to release nine special red wines to showcase where it has come after 175 years of turning grapes into wine.
Yalumba unveiled a set of museum wines from its outstanding 2010, 2013 and 2015 vintages, each carefully cellared for 10, 12 and 15 years.
The idea for the museum releases was the brainchild of Jessica Hill-Smith, Yalumba's general manager of public relations, communications and business affairs.
She correctly identified a hunger among wine lovers to taste old timers.
Restaurants, especially, were quick to embrace the museum release program, here and abroad.
Jessica is a sixth-generation Hill-Smith.
Louisa Rose, Yalumba winemaker and head of sustainability guided wine scribes through glorious back vintages of The Caley Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz, The Octavius Old Vine Shiraz, The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon, and The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon & Shiraz at tastings around the country.
Rose can add wine historian to her credentials.
She is an authentic voice with exceptional knowledge of Australia's precious older vines.
Indeed it was Yalumba that drafted a charter to classify different ages of old vines, and it was adopted nationwide.
The charter says 'old vines' must be 35-plus years old, survivors, 70-plus years, centenarians 100-plus years and ancestors 125 years of age or older.
Yalumba planted its first vines in 1849.
They continue to be sustained by some of the world's oldest soils.
The museum releases are precious wines for collectors and connoisseurs willing to pay the price to experience wines of complexity, depth, and refinement.
There is much to explore.
Sitting alongside the museum release is a set of new 'rare and fine wine' releases.
It was the second museum release by Yalumba.
And there was a newcomer this year.
Hand-picked from gnarly old vines planted in 1889, the 2015 Yalumba The Tri-Centenary Grenache ($100) is juicy and medium-bodied and features a rush of cherry, strawberry and raspberry aromas and flavours with a whisper of smoke and cardamon.
It is a triumph - and perhaps a tribute to winemaker Kevin Glastonbury who left the wine on skins for 41 days.
Later at lunch we also tasted the 2023 Tri-Centenary Grenache which also underwent extended post-fermentation maceration to extract phenolic compounds from the skins, seeds, and any stems to optimise the colour, flavour and tannins.
The showstoppers of the tasting were the 2013 Yalumba, the Caley Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz ($550) and its younger brother, the 2015 Caley ($520).
If this was Hollywood, they would be Academy Award winners.
The 2013 Caley was sourced from three vineyards in the Coonawarra and the Barossa.
A Yalumba Coonawarra vineyard planted in 1992 provided the 55 percent cabernet component.
The shiraz (45 percent) came from two Barossa blocks; one the Simon Cowham old shiraz block planted in 1955 near Light Pass and the other the Crown Village vineyard planted in 1974 on Krondorf Road.
It's a rich palate.
Double decant.
Some others: Yalumba 2015 The Octavius Old Vine Shiraz ($234).
The fruit comes from vines with an average age of 97 years.
It shows appealing notes of currants, mulberries and cherries.
Yalumba 2010 The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon & Shiraz Museum Release ($110).
Another blending masterclass from 52 percent Barossa cabernet sauvignon and 48 percent Barossa Shiraz.
Yalumba 2010 The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon Museum Release ($95).
The Hill-Smith family's Menzies vineyard rests on the fabled Coonawarra terra rossa soils over limestone.
Quintessential Coonawarra cabernet has notes of cedar and cigar box with ripe blackcurrants and hints of earthy, forest floor.
It was made by Peter Gambetta.
