Yalumba
Yalumba is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery — Campbell Mattinson's highest honour.
Barossa Valley/Eden Valley/Coonawarra.
Yalumba is Australia’s oldest (continuously) family-owned winery. It’s been in business for a remarkable 177 years (est. 1849). It has won all the accolades and all the awards, has done forever, and still does. And yet, arguably, it remains under-appreciated. Yalumba is, in truth, a colossus of Australian wine.
The Case.
In 2025 Yalumba won the Best Grenache Award at the Royal Queensland Wine Show for a grenache that costs AU$40 (Vat 11 Grenache 2024). The year before it won the same award, with a different wine (Yalumba Vine Vale Grenache 2023, also AU$40). Grenache, when made in a modern, lighter, lacier, more perfumed style, is the hottest red wine style in Australia at the moment (among wine enthusiasts); these are prized awards to win. To a large extent the larger “establishment” wineries, despite their vineyard resources, have so far missed out on the grenache revolution. Not Yalumba. Yalumba is not just a market leader in quality terms in the grenache segment; it’s a leader in value too.
An old dog who has learned, or led, new tricks is one thing. But Yalumba remains a leader of traditional wine styles as well. The past four vintages of Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Shiraz reviewed on The Winefront site (2018, 2019, 2021, 2023) all scored 95 points, and will all cellar magnificently. Yalumba’s The Signature has been made since 1962, still costs only AU$75, and is routinely as good as fellow/rival Cabernet Shiraz blend Penfolds Bin 389, which asks AU$120.
Yalumba makes a lot of wine, it’s true, across many different grape varieties, more often than not meeting or bettering the standard you would expect at each respective price point. It has also been a pioneer of both the viognier and tempranillo varieties, among (many) others. But the producer who is slaying them in the aisles with its reasonably-priced-but-elite grenache wines also produces The Caley Cabernet & Shiraz, at a price of AU$370 per bottle. On The Winefront site, which likes to be mean with its scores, The Caley Cabernet & Shiraz has scored 96, 96+, 96, 96 and 97 for its 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021 releases respectively.
Yalumba is a big wine company. But it’s family-owned. And it puts runs on the board, in the bottle, across multiple wine styles, better than just about anyone.
And that’s without even mentioning riesling, of which its Pewsey Vale label has traditionally been a star,.
The wines that carry the case.
Yalumba The Caley Cabernet & Shiraz 2021 (Barossa/Coonawarra/Eden): Winefront.
Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Shiraz 2023 (Barossa Valley): Winefront.
Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Shiraz 2019 (Barossa Valley): It nails the brief 100%. Its flavours are dark, brooding, deep and delicious; its tannin profile is both integrated and rock solid, and the length of the finish – awash with toasted herbs, tobacco, gum leaf and cedar-cream characters – is impeccably long.
Yalumba The Virgilius Viognier 2022 (Eden Valley): Winefront.
Yalumba Vine Vale Grenache 2025 (Barossa Valley): Winefront.
See also [Best Australian Grenache]
Yalumba is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery – the highest honour awarded by Australian wine critic Campbell Mattinson. 10-Star status recognises one thing: the quality of the wine in the glass, every glass, across the range. The full list of 10-Star Wineries constitutes Australia's Best Wineries.
