Wine of the week: a simply perfect Australian red

(Image credit: 2016 Yalumba)

last updated 18 June 2021

2016 Yalumba, The Caley, Coonawarra & Barossa, Cabernet & Shiraz, South Australia

About £501 for three bottles in bond, frw.co.uk, bordeauxindex.com, bgvintners.co.uk, vinquinn.com, nickollsandperks.co.uk, uk.cruworldwine.com

I am so passionate about the blend of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz that, back in 2006, I started an annual competition in Australia to determine the finest wine that is made from what I call “the blend that defines Australia”. I believe that this partnership makes some of the most legendary red wines on earth. Penfolds Bin 389, Wolf Blass Black Label and Yalumba’s own Signature are three awe-inspiring interpretations of this historic style of fine red wine.

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Back in 2014, an unlabelled 2012 vintage wine from Yalumba won my award and the next year the very same wine won the title again. The chances of this happening are akin to a lottery win. This wine was eventually released as 2012 Yalumba The Caley – Yalumba’s inaugural, super-premium, flagship red wine. Each release since has been nothing short of epic. I tasted the 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and my featured and soon to be released 2016 the other day and declared it the finest five consecutive vintage “vertical” I have ever tasted. I awarded the 2012 a perfect 20/20 score and this wine’s subsequent vintages have never dipped below 19/20.

The 2016 arrives in the autumn and you can reserve your stock now. A maximum of 250 cases are made so it is one of the rarest great red wines on earth. I awarded this 2016 another perfect 20/20 in my notes. You can see detailed tasting notes of each wine on my website.

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

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.