Yangarra Old Vine Grenache 2021

Yangarra Old Vine Grenache 2021 won the Halliday Red Wine of the Year in 2023.

Yangarra Old Vine Grenache 2021
$45, 14.5% alcohol, screwcap, McLaren Vale.

I tasted Yangarra’s Old Vine Grenache 2021 when it was first released, with my Winefront hat on (though it was reviewed there by Gary Walsh, at 95/100), and then tasted it again with my Halliday hat on, where it won the Halliday Red Wine of the Year (with a Panel Decision rating of 99/100). As a result of these tastings I bought a 6-pack for personal consumption, but now only have two bottles remaining. Young grenache, even when it’s cellar-worthy, is so damn drinkable that, for my personal tastes, I’m usually happy to drink it on release. My remaining two bottles of this are unlikely to last longer than the next couple of years, or less.

I drank a full bottle of this over the course of two nights last weekend. It no doubt has several years of highly enjoyable drinking ahead of it, but I can’t see this wine improving much from here. That is, I think that it’s now at its peak. It has softened and developed but the core of red- and black-licorice flavour is surrounded beautifully by leather, sweet spice, orange peel and fresh red cherries/strawberries. It builds in the glass and rises to the occasion, like the champion wine that it is. It’s a great Saturday night drink, right now.

As an aside, on night two it was slightly lesser – though still thoroughly enjoyable – than it was on night one.