2008 Yalumba Shiraz Viognier- The Y Series

Clay and I decided to continue our Christmas Movie Marathon a few days later. We REALLY wanted to see "It's A Wonderful Life" because Clay's never seen it; however it wasn't On Demand, so we settled for "Elf"! : )
(Side note: How Clay has never seen ANY movie is beyond me!? He's a walking movie encyclopedia... it's strange!!!)

2008 Yalumba Shiraz Viognier (The Y Series)

South Australia

Date tasted: 12/22/10

Purchased from: Shiraz wine store

Price: $9.99

Rating:

Rebecca: 8.5

Clay: 7

Sight: dark and really clear

Smell: spicy and jammy

Tastes: med-full bodied, easy to drink, spicy, dark jammy fruits

I've talked about Yalumba before... I've never had a bad bottle! This was no exception. It's 92% Shiraz and 8% Viognier. (And, it's a screw top which I always love!) It's really smooth and easy to drink, but still dry and spicy. It's just a great 'drinking wine'! This one isn't anything special, but it's just a good, easy bottle of wine! This, to me, would be a great bottle to just keep on hand for when you want a glass of wine at night... especially since it's only $9.99! It's not a special occasion wine, it's just good! : ) I would and will definitely buy this again!

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! : )

St. Louis- 2008 Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon

Clay had meetings in St. Louis and I'd never been, so we put the Skymiles to good use! : )

It was a VERY quick trip (I flew up there Friday afternoon and we came back on Saturday evening)! But, still great to see new places, etc.!

We didn't really have much on the agenda other than having a good dinner and seeing the arch! The weather was supposed to be terrible on Saturday, so we went ahead and got the touristy bit out of the way on Friday when I got there. The arch is amazing! I didn't think I'd be impressed (I mean... it's just a metal arch in some random city); however, I was definitely mesmerized! It's just incredible how tall that thing is! Apparently, I missed the portion of the museum under the arch where it listed the height and some fun facts about it, but smarty pants Clay didn't (of course)! He listed the height (which I don't remember) and said that the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument and the Empire State Building (I'm not 100% sure I'm right about that last one) would all fit under the St. Louis arch! That's pretty tall!!! It was an absolutely PERFECT day outside and the sunlight was bouncing off of the metal in such a really beautiful way! So, St. Louis gets a check in my book!

Now... on to dinner!

We ate at Herbie's Vintage 72 (herbies.com) in this really adorable part of St. Louis (that Clay had never seen)! I wish it had been earlier so that we could really walk around and explore, but oh well!

I had really high hopes for the food after looking at the menu at home; however, I have to admit... I was a bit disappointed! : ( Clay really enjoyed his meal, so that's great; however, mine was definitely sub-par! BUT... the wine was great! : )

We ordered the 2007 Yalumba Cab, but they brought out the 2008... oh well! Like I'd actually know the difference! : )

This particular bottle was the cheapest Cab. on the menu (which NEVER happens), but I was excited to try it and had been looking forward to it!

I've had 2 other wines from Yalumba and was incredibly impressed! I've had a GSM and a port and loved both! So, I figured the Cab. would at least be good too! It was!

2008 Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon

South Australia

Date tasted: 10/22/10

$30- pretty good for a restaurant, huh!? : )

My rating: 9

Clay's rating: 8

Had jammy, smoky smells (mostly cigar) and peppery tastes. It was not super full bodied, I'd actually say it was closer to medium bodied, but still had big Cab. flavors.

That's all the notes I took on it while we were there... oops!

It's DEFINITELY a bottle I'd buy again! And, it just proved to me more that I love Yalumba and will feel confident when I see it listed!