The boardroom clapometer said it all. Hosted by winemaker Louisa Rose and sixth generation family, Lucy Hill-Smith, our Spectator Winemaker Lunch featuring the wines of Yalumba – Australia’s oldest family-owned winery, founded by Samuel Smith in the Barossa Valley 175 years ago – was one of our finest. I’ve never heard such riotous applause, nor seen such broad smiles spread across our readers’ chops.

Mrs Ray, being half Australian, had threatened to join us but was too slow out of the traps and had to make do with the bottles Lucy kindly sent me to try at home. Fret not, she made the most of it. And so darn good were the wines, I’m delighted to offer them here courtesy of our good chums at Honest Grapes.

The 2024 Yalumba Samuel’s Collection Eden Valley Chardonnay (1) is the antithesis of infamous, old style, heavily oaked Aussie Chardonnay. This is stylish and spare, with white stone fruit, honeyed citrus and toasted nuts to the fore with any hint of exuberance kept beautifully in check. Freshness and subtlety are key. £15.50 down from £17.

The 2023 Yalumba Virgilius Viognier (2) is Yalumba’s flagship white and as fine a Viognier as you’ll find outside or even – dare I whisper it? – inside Condrieu, the grape’s spiritual home. It’s so light on its feet and where many a Viognier is flabby and cloying, it’s restrained and elegant with delicate wafts of peach and apricot rather than overwhelming gusts. £37.66 down from £41.

The 2024 Yalumba Samuel’s Collection Bush Vine Grenache (3) shows just how brightly Grenache shines in the Barossa. Produced from low yielding, old bush vine fruit – over 100 years old in some cases – it’s smooth, supple, sweet-yet-savoury and succulent with the softest of tannins. It seems awfully cheap. £15.50 down from £17.

The 2022 Yalumba Samuel’s Collection Shiraz (4) is similarly well-crafted and well-priced and further proof that the Hill-Smiths really do love us all. Drawn from varied sites in the Barossa, each enjoying its own microclimate, it’s cannily blended before spending almost a year in young and old French and Hungarian hogsheads. The result is a fresh, lively, fruity, spicy and almost chocolatey wine, begging to be drunk. £15.50 down from £17.

The 2021 Yalumba ‘The Cigar’ Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon (5) is so-named in recognition of Coonawarra’s distinctive cigar-shaped outcrop of treasured terra rossa soil. This is Cabernet country, and the Yalumba Menzies Estate, established in 1975, encompasses the finest possible plots. The result: a wine of remarkable depth and concentration, full of dark berry fruit, touches of mint, eucalyptus and dried herbs, spice and even more juicy fruit. “You little ripper!” exclaimed Mrs Ray who was becoming noticeably more Australian the further down the bottles she went. £21.83 down from £24.

The 2021 Yalumba ‘The Signature’ Cabernet/Shiraz (6) is grown up fare indeed, a blend of just over half Barossa Cabernet and just under half Barossa Shiraz. Each vintage of the ‘Signature’ celebrates a valued member of the Yalumba team and this, the ‘Signature’s’ 50th vintage, is in honour of Chris Gerhardy, a company stalwart of 50 years’ standing. It’s one heck of a wine – rich and juicy with dark cherry and plum, liquorice, spice and cassis. I reckon it’s got another 20-25 years in it although it lasted barely 20-25 minutes once Mrs R got hold of it, so well did it go with my homemade oxtail stew and mash. £35.83 down from £39.

Finally, a real treat, the 2022 Yalumba 175th Anniversary Shiraz/Grenache (7), produced in a strictly limited edition of magnums only. A blend of Barossa Valley/Eden Valley Shiraz and Barossa Grenache grown across four vineyards (the oldest vines of which were planted in 1854) this will appeal to wine lovers and wine collectors alike. It’s a stupendous wine, with rich, soft, seamlessly integrated fruit, herbs and spice. It will last forever if you can keep your hands off it and might even make you a few quid. £120 down from £140.

Delivery, as ever, is free.
Jonathan Ray, The Spectator Wine Club