First taste: Yalumba The Signature Shiraz Cabernet 2010

As we move into another year I’ll be a little sad to see fewer 2010 South Australian reds at tastings as they make way for the (undeniably very good) 2012s.  The 10s have been brilliantly consistent and consistently very good to outstanding with oodles of charm to boot.  Here’s a great example – an old favourite – which caught my eye in October when I caught up with Chief Winemaker Louisa Rose.  

Yalumba The Signature Shiraz Cabernet 2010 (Barossa, South Australia)

In 2010, The Signature belongs to the Barossa bard, Yalumba’s global brand ambassador Jane Ferrari, who hosted my very first visit to Yalumba’s Angaston HQ in 2004.  This classic Australian blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon and 48% Shiraz matured for 20 months in 35% new French oak hogsheads and barriques with the balance in 2, 3 and 4 year old French, Hungarian and American hogsheads.  The Cabernet is very much to the fore in this super-refined Signature.  It reveals bright, really juicy, pure blackcurrant and mulberry fruit with seamless, fine-grained tannins.  The long, elegant finish – very precise – is laced with lifted cedar and cigar box notes.  Utterly charming now and, given its consummate concentration and balance, I’d expect it to rival some of the sixties’ Signatures which I tasted at Yalumba’s 24th Museum tasting in 2013.  £32.79 at Amazon.