Winner in waiting: Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz

Cabernet sauvignon and shiraz make for a true local classic.

Yalumba Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2015, Yalumba The Caley Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2014, Yalumba FRD1A Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2013.

Classic. It’s a word used all too commonly in the wine world. Everyone wants to resemble the classics from around the world and it’s a common catch-all term used by Australian winemakers. 

Classic Burgundian-style pinot noir and chardonnay found in the Adelaide Hills, Rhône-style syrah grown in the Yarra and Bordeaux-like cabernet blends from Margaret River. And don’t forget the most famous of all – Penfolds Grange Hermitage, originally named after the stark hill of Hermitage that towers over the small town of Tain-l’Hermitage in Eastern France.

Which raises the question: what are the truly original Australian classic wine styles? Great chardonnay with New World power plus real subtlety and delicacy of fruit? Tick. Dense, ripe shiraz with buckets of flavour and longevity? Tick again.

But perhaps there is another, an ace in this pack and the least appreciated of the truly Australian wine styles: the blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz. These wines have the great ripeness of local shiraz but, in the best examples, also the highest levels of complexity and structure for long-term ageing.

On the Left Bank of Bordeaux, cabernet sauvignon has been blended with merlot, cabernet franc, petit verdot and malbec for hundreds of years, each variety giving the underlying cabernet a little more interest. Particularly important is the use of merlot. Cabernet can be a little tough in Bordeaux – complex but also bony, sinewy and tannic. Merlot adds the flesh, the flavour and the juicy appeal. Both grape varieties are largely at their best when they are paired, each filling the other’s deficit. 

In Australia we traditionally seem to enjoy the simplicity of single-variety wines – straight shirazes and cabernets far outsell the blends. The exceptions are cabernet with merlot, shiraz and grenache, with the odd shiraz viognier blend. Yet long before these wines showed their potential in Australia, shiraz and cabernet were known to be great bedfellows. The Bordelaise were the first to trial the blend in the late 18th century and the famed Château Lafite Rothschild was blended with syrah from Hermitage in 1795.

One hundred years later, Australia had already taken its first steps with shiraz cabernet blends, with Yalumba exporting such wines to the British Raj in India. French winemaker Edmund Mazure followed suit, creating shiraz cabernet blends in Adelaide’s foothills, and Chateau Reynella was next. But it was in the early 1960s that cabernet and shiraz blends took centre stage. In a single exceptional South Australian vintage both Yalumba and Penfolds crafted iconic Australian wines – Penfolds with its Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet Kalimna Shiraz Special Bin and Yalumba with its inaugural release of The Signature Barossa Valley Cabernet Shiraz. Both represented the finest fruit of the season, if not the decade. 

Today Yalumba remains the leading exponent of this red blend in the country. While there are many wines that combine shiraz and cabernet sauvignon, almost all from South Australia, no company does more to push this classic Australian blend. It began with Yalumba Claret in the 1800s, was enhanced by the release of the first Yalumba Signature in 1962 and has been crowned by The Caley. The newly released Caley was named after Caley Smith, who in the late 1800s took to India some of the winery’s first cabernet shiraz blends.

Yalumba crafts a range of cabernet shiraz wines, each of which are quite different expressions of the blend thanks to different fruit sourcing. The Signature is 100 per cent Barossan, a robust Australian red wine style with clear local heritage. The Caley is a regional blend and obviously built for long ageing, bringing together the elegance, structure and complexity of Coonawarra cabernet with the density and power of Barossa Valley shiraz.

Another fascinating Yalumba example is the FRD1A, first released from the 1974 vintage. Unusually for this blend, the wine is wholly sourced from the cooler Eden Valley, a region not famous for its cabernet sauvignon. This creates a more savoury, closed, brooding and rustic style, marked by almost ferocious tannins that provide great backbone to its searing fruit intensity. FDR1A is not a wine that leaps out of the glass and now only teases with its potential to drink beautifully for decades.

Cabernet shiraz blends have the potential to be some of our country’s finest wines. The combination of old vines, rich shiraz and more structural cabernet can create the perfect partnership, giving more complexity than a single varietal, plus ageing potential. The only pity is that more effort is not put into making these wines locally and creating a classic Australian style that would forge the global renown it deserves.

The Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2015 

A classic South Australian dry red style – layers of mulberry, blackberry, leather and spicy fruits, with some quite significant oak and fleshy fruits. In the mouth it is full-bodied, supple and generous with great structural balance in a package that is long and strong.

Yalumba The Caley Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2014

This is a wine that needs time and plenty of it. Largely Coonawarra cabernet, it reeks of choc mint, cedar and cassis fruit with balanced oak that leads to a vibrant, powerful and structural palate. It is quite reserved with superbly youthful fruit that is coiled up tight and needs a cool cellar to show its best. 

Yalumba FRD1A Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2013

A robust and youthful style despite its age, with powerful cassis and blackberry fruits supported by mint, spice and overt but balanced oak. It’s dry, mid weight and tannic, with graphite, spice and thyme flavours with significant concentration and length. A serious red wine.