More about Yalumba

That last post really got me thinking about Yalumba and I really wanted to know more about the winery. So, here's a little info.:

Here's Frommer's review:
"This winery was built in 1849, making it the oldest family-owned winemaking business in Australia. It's also huge. The winery's Signature red Cabernet-Shiraz is among the best you'll ever taste. Open daily 10am to 5pm."

YUM! I will now make it a mission to try this delicious sounding Cab-Shiraz!!!

From Wikipedia:

"Yalumba is a winery located near Angaston, South Australia in the Barossa Valley. It was founded by a British Brewer, Samuel Smith, who emigrated to Australia with his family from Wareham, Dorset in August 1847 in the ship 'China'. Upon arriving in Australia in December, Smith built a small house on the banks of the River Torrens. He lived there less than a year before moving north to Angaston where he purchased a 30-acre block of land on the settlement's south eastern boundary. He named his property 'Yalumba' after an indigenous Australian word for "all the land around". In 1849, Samuel Smith, along with his son, Sidney, planted Yalumba's first vineyards, beginning the Yalumba dynasty. Today, Yalumba is Australia's oldest family-owned winery."
"Yalumba is part of Australian wine alliance Australia's First Families of Wine, a multi-million dollar venture to help ressurect the fortunes of the $6 billion industry highlighting the quality diversity of Australian wine. The 12 member alliance includes Brown Brothers, Campbells, Taylors, DeBortoli, McWilliams, Tahbilk, Tyrell's, Yalumba, D'Arenberg, Howard Park, Jim Barry and Henschke. The main criteria is that the family-owned companies need to have a "landmark wine" in their portfolios as listed under Langton's Classification and/or 75% agreement by group that a wine is considered "iconic", must have the ability to do at least a 20-year vertical tasting, have a history going back a minimum of two generations, ownership of vineyards more than 50 years old and/or ownership of distinguished sites that exemplify the best of terroir, and be paid-up members of the Winemakers Federation of Australia."
Wikipedia also lists that they produce 750,000 cases/year and that they are most known for The Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz and The Octavius Old Vine Barossa Shiraz.

After looking at Yalumba's website (www.yalumba.com), I discovered the GSM that I had in Texas about 4 years ago! They actually call it the Yalumba m/g/s (so, does that mean that it's majority Mourvedre!?) rather than GSM. All I know is that I want it again! : )

Hmmm... a trip to Australia is sounding better and better! : )

Boston! 2005 Gigondas Les Hauts de Montmirail

First off... Boston was awesome! : )

We had a great time on all fronts and I can't wait to go back!

But, the big decision for our wine at Aquitaine didn't get any easier once we were there! : )

We got there and loved it at first sight! It was such a cute, quaint, dimly lit little restaurant and we knew there was great potential from the moment we walked in! And, since I had already memorized the menu and decided what we'd order from appetizer to dessert (minus the wine decision of course), we had plenty of time to soak in the atmosphere and have a romantic evening!

I knew that I wanted to go ahead and order our bottle right when we got there so that it would have time to breathe while we had our appetizer, etc., so I really had to get with it! So, I discussed with our waiter some of the top choices I had made prior to getting there and we decided on the Chateauneuf du Pape, Domaine du Galet des Papes (2004)... and I was pumped about it! Well, the waiter came back a couple minutes later and said that someone had just ordered the last bottle! Of course they did! Had these people known how much time went in to choosing that exact bottle, they may have given it up to me! : ) So, we moved to plan B. Our waiter was very patient with me (but also obviously annoyed) and helped us decide on our perfect bottle! We ended up with the 2005 Gigondas Les Hauts de Montmirail. I was really hopeful about this one because it's a GSM and I've had some really great GSM's. This particular one is 55% Grenache, 25% Syrah and 20% Mourvedre (G=Grenache, S= Syrah, M= Mourvedre). The waiter thought that the peppery notes would really go well with our Filet au Poivre and that we'd be pleased with the flavors and weight of the wine.

We LOVED it!!! It was so perfect with our filets and it just completed an already perfect meal!

(We had the Mussels en Cassoulette for an appetizer and were basically licking the cassoulette when the mussels were gone! SOOO good!!! Then, we both had the Filet au Poivre for our entree. It was the best au Poivre sauce I've ever had!!! The filet was cooked to perfection and had the best pepper crust... YUM! I'm salivating now just thinking about it! And then we split a Creme Brulee for dessert. It was huge and amazingly delicious!)

This picture is from Aquitaine's website, but it has a picture of the Mussels en Cassoulette, so I included it! : )

Here's our steak (with the stupid good potatoes) and yummy wine! : )

Ok, concentrating on the wine again! : )

So, I didn't take too many notes because I was way too busy eating and drinking, but I'll list what I have!

Smells: slightly smoky smells (cigar)

Tastes: full-bodied, jammy fruit flavors, peppery finish

Rating: Clay gave it a 8.5-9 and I gave it a 9-9.5

These pictures were taken with my iPhone, so they're not great!

It really was a delicious wine and went perfectly with our amazing meal! Next time we're in Boston, we'll definitely be stopping back in to Aquitaine for another great experience!