Super claret: Yalumba’s tribute to Fred Caley Smith

This new Yalumba blend, a tribute to the estate’s original adventurer, was originally dubbed ‘super claret’.

Yalumba's new blend ‘The Caley’ 2012. RRP: $350

Fred Caley Smith was a man in possession of green thumbs, inquisitive eyes and tired feet.

In 1893 he set out on a two-year journey that would take him through Europe, North America, the Middle East and Indian subcontinent in search of new markets for the wines and canned fruits produced at the Barossa estate established by his grandfather and still known today as Yalumba.

While knowledgeable in the ways of the vineyard, Fred’s real expertise was more horticultural than viticultural. So much so, he was appointed an Honorary Horticultural Commissioner by the South Australian government before his departure and was engaged to document his travels for the Melbourne’s The Argus, Adelaide Register, and the Heralds of Sydney and Auckland.

Fred’s pen was perceptive and prolific, but even more valuable than his journalism are the letters he sent home at a rate of one every couple of days for the entirety of his trip.

The letters tell tales of how the wines of colonial Australia were finding their way in the world, of the latest developments in horticultural practice and how a thoughtful and curious young man engaged with a world that couldn’t have been more different from the small Barossa town of Angaston to which they were sent.

They were compiled, bound and stashed away in the family archive at Yalumba, where they gathered dust until they were recently called into service to help launch the most ambitious wine Yalumba has produced in its 168-year history.

The wine is called The Caley, not just in honour of the adventurous Fred but as a reference to the path Yalumba has travelled to this point and the direction in which it’s headed.

Australia’s oldest family-owned winery is many things, but flashy isn’t one them, and its various vinous offerings have always come into the world with a quiet confidence rather than a big splash.

So when a handful of wine media was called to the Barossa last month for a couple of days’ tasting to provide context before the revelation of a new wine, speculation ran rampant.

This was Yalumba making a clear statement of intent.

A scan of the tasting schedule provided clues: a session exploring Yalumba’s history with cabernet followed by something similar with Barossa shiraz, then culminating with a look at the company’s fabled history of blending the two.

It didn’t require Sherlockian powers of deduction to work out the wine we were waiting for would be some form of that blend.

Yalumba has always been at the forefront of the peculiarly Australian practice of blending cabernet and shiraz, going right back to the days when we commonly called such wines claret.

In fact before the idea came to call the wine The Caley it went by the working title Super Claret.

And although it took a while to settle on a name, the wine had its stylistic parameters in place from the outset.

When we conjure up the spirit of clarets past, we’re remembering wines built on sinew rather than muscle or flesh, wines with shapes you can still make out under their robes.

Although trade agreements with the EU mean we can no longer use the word in a branding sense, claret is still widely used in the trade as a shorthand description of style.

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.

Yalumba ‘The Caley’ 2012
52% Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, 27% Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Barossa Shiraz | 22 months in Yalumba coopered French Oak | Price: $350