Winemaker Notes
Dense red with purple hues. Dark fruits, licorice spices, wildflower and gamey notes are underpinned with earthy tones that are all brambly and rustic with a herbal savor that references a sense of place. The palate feels perfectly ripe and firm. Red satin textured fruit, succulent with bright acidity, a ferrous minerality and cherry juiciness saturating the stony notes that provide the wines firm base.
Pair with slow roasted pork belly, crunchy crackling with home made fennel and caraway seed gravy, or roasted beetroot soup with soured macadamia cream.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 The Tri-Centenary Grenache reveals the precipice of development—in this case, 12 years from harvest. The wine here is youthful, with an abundance of red and purple stone fruits, some mallow and nougat. There's freshly grated nutmeg, tapenade, sweet pastry and clove. This spent 31 days on the skins. It's a gorgeous wine. The vines were planted in 1889 on the Vine Vale sands in Barossa Valley.
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Wine & Spirits
This wine grows at a block of bush vines planted in 1889, bridging three centuries on two acres of sand over clay. Their deep roots are on display in the wine’s cool stamina. A black and saturated grenache that feels tense with airy spice, its strawberry scents darken to plum and sassafras while the spice continues to last. Still young, this feels like it will last for decades.
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James Suckling
Aromas of raspberries and red currants with depth and finesse. It has impressive power and it doesn't back away from firmness in the tannin department. Very fresh still. Drink or hold.
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Wine Enthusiast
The 2013 vintage of this wine, sourced from Yalumba's oldest vines, is broody and plush. A deep well of cherry and raspberry fruit, mocha, dried flowers and cedar brush aromas are smudged with warm stone minerals. Already six years old, signs of age are starting to creep in, in the form of old leather-bound library book nuances. The plush fruit on the palate is a little weighty, but it's cinched by powerful, tight-grained tannins. A rich expression of Grenache that needs protein or more time in bottle. Drink now–2029.
Grenache thrives in any warm, Mediterranean climate where ample sunlight allows its clusters to achieve full phenolic ripeness. While Grenache's birthplace is Spain (there called Garnacha), today it is more recognized as the key player in the red blends of the Southern Rhône, namely Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Côtes du Rhône and its villages. Somm Secret—The Italian island of Sardinia produces bold, rustic, single varietal Grenache (there called Cannonau). California, Washington and Australia have achieved found success with Grenache, both flying solo and in blends.
Historically and presently the most important wine-producing region of Australia, the Barossa Valley is set in the Barossa zone of South Australia, where more than half of the country’s wine is made. Because the climate is very hot and dry, vineyard managers work diligently to ensure grapes reach the perfect levels of phenolic ripeness.
The intense heat is ideal for plush, bold reds, particularly Shiraz on its own or Rhône Blends. Often Shiraz and Cabernet partner up for plump and powerful reds.
While much less prevalent, light-skinned varieties such as Riesling, Viognier or Semillon produce vibrant Barossa Valley whites.
Most of Australia’s largest wine producers are based here and Shiraz plantings date back as far as the 1850s or before. Many of them are dry farmed and bush trained, still offering less than one ton per acre of inky, intense, purple juice.