One of Australia’s greatest reds

Make it your mission to drink this sensational Aussie red.

2008 Yalumba, The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz, Barossa Valley, South Australia (£26.99, Waitrose Wine Direct, www.waitrosedirect.com).

This is an awesome wine. It is one of Australia's greatest reds and yet is commands a very reasonable price indeed. While Penfolds Grange tops £350 per bottle, you can buy a case of 12 bottles of The Signature for the same price. I am a Grange fan, but this ratio is preposterous.

The Signature is made from my favourite Aussie blend of cabernet and shiraz in this wine's case, 56% cab and 44% shiraz, seasoned with the perfect mix of French, American and Hungarian oak. The 2006 vintage has made my 100 Best Australian Wines' list this year and this newly released 2008 is sublime, too, having won a Silver medal in last November's the Great Australian Red competition.

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I would expect it to perform very well again in this year's TGAR on 8 November. I will publish the results on my website as soon as I have collated them. With more exuberance than the 2006, thanks to the heat spikes in 2008, this is a luxurious, intense, wholly enjoyable wine and you should make it your mission to own some because it is sensational.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.