Yarra Yering Dry Red No. 1 2021

"67/15/12/6% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/malbec/petit verdot.  The first plantings at YY into block No 1 were these cabernet and malbec vines, hence the name.  Some merlot was interplanted with the cabernet and subsequent plantings in 1990 from a newly acquired neighbouring site.  Petit verdot is only grown on the hillside of the new territories.  All hand harvested and sorted, only the very best berries go into this wine.  Cabernet berries sorted individually before crushed.  Merlot, malbec and petit verdot are whole-berry ferments.  All fermented in half-tonne fermenters, hand plunged twice daily.  Some of the cabernet spends more time on skins.  Components are kept separate in French oak 40% new, 15 months all up then blended just before bottling.  This is mesmerising.  Do take time to bask in its fragrance – all floral and spicy with some aniseed and fresh herbs.  Enjoy the poised fruit flavours of blackberries, mulberries and a hint of blueberries coated in spicy oak and tethered to the body of the wine.  Pulsing acidity and beautiful tannin structure shape this and offer a promise of more to come in time.  Wow – what a wine."  98pts, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion 

"Deep, bright red/purple hues.  The bouquet is superbly fresh and bright, showing violets, briar, cassis, cedar and crushed-leaf cabernet aromas.  The palate is very elegant and balanced, also very intense.  Oak is barely discernible.  Long, long carry; a trace of sappiness in the tannins.  A very fine wine indeed."  96pts, Huon Hooke, The Real Review