Home > Wines We Love > 2024 Yangarra Field Blend

Fresh, vibrant and light, yet layered with intricate detail, this wine is a joyous and approachable example of the genius of the late Peter Fraser – a champion of not only grenache, but also of lesser-known climate-apt varieties.

Producer
Yangarra
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$27
Vintage

2024
Variety/Varieties

Carignan Cinsault Grenache Mourvèdre
Alc./Vol.

13.5%

The recent passing of Yangarra’s winemaker and general manager Peter Fraser has sent shockwaves through the Australian wine community – we continue to mourn the loss of a man who was not only a brilliant winemaker, but was also, in his own quiet way, a true thought leader. While much of the focus since his passing has been on his groundbreaking (and now relatively pricy) single-vineyard ‘High Sands’ Grenache, this much more affordably priced wine is equally a testament to Fraser’s forward-thinking approach. A climate-apt tweak of the established ‘GSM’ blend template, this wine – mostly made from grenache, accompanied by small portions of carignan, counoise, cinsault, and mourvèdre (aka mataro) – is an ode to the freshness and vibrancy that is possible in warm-climate wines when varieties are chosen for their suitability to the region, not the dictates of the market.

Tasting note

A beautiful translucent ruby colour in the glass, with equally seductive and bright aromas of fresh raspberries, sour Morello cherries, and freshly crushed pomegranate arils, alongside a whiff of rooibos tea. It’s fresh and silky on the palate, with bright, crunchy acidity, some pleasing mid-palate weight (more than the bright fruit character would lead you to believe), and very fine, black tea–like tannins providing just the right amount of grip. There’s a sneaky depth of flavour towards the back of the palate – possibly from the dash of mourvèdre – that shows up as mulberry fruit and brambly spice notes. There’s plenty of layered flavour and nuance to be unpicked here if you care to look for it – hints of Australian bush herbs, the savoury edge of those tea-like tannins, a floral lift to the aromas – but, like its maker, this isn’t a wine that forces you to acknowledge its brilliance. Instead it’s charming, unfussy, and joyous – a beautiful everyday red from a master of grenache.

Themes of this wine

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Climate-apt viticulture

Most wine consumers are familiar with only a small handful of the 1300+ grape varieties currently turned into wine. These well-known varieties are often called ‘international’ varieties because, thanks to consumer demand, they’re now grown across a wide range of climatic conditions worldwide (even if they nearly all have French origins). But not all of these well-known varieties are suited to the conditions in which they’re grown – leading to resource-consuming viticultural practices (such as intensive irrigation) to successfully grow fruit, and extra interventions in the winery (such as acid additions) to turn that fruit into marketable wine. Climate-apt viticulture flips that script by starting with a match of grape variety to climate, then letting winemaking and marketing follow suit. In warm-climate regions that might mean planting obscure varieties – with names like arinto, cinsault, and tinta cao – that ripen later and retain their acidity in the heat, leading to wines that require far less work and additions in the cellar. It’s a win-win for both flavour and environmental sustainability – but the hardest part is usually getting consumers to bring home a bottle that has an unfamiliar variety on the label.

Home > Wines We Love > 2025 Yangarra Piquepoul

The fourth release of this variety from the biodynamic Yangarra, the surprisingly savoury, salty depth of this wine shows how quickly they have mastered this recent arrival.

Producer
Yangarra
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$27
Vintage

2025
Variety/Varieties
Alc./Vol.

12.5%

The southern French variety piquepoul is a relatively recent arrival to this country, but its future here looks bright – with its ability to retain fresh acidity in warm climates and its tendency towards low alcohol levels, it can make light, vibrant white wines in places better known for boozy bruiser reds. McLaren Vale’s Yangarra were early adopters of this variety, and their 2025 release showcases their ability to build complexity within its framework.

Tasting note

Aromatically, this is all about freshness: a relatively reticent nose of snow pea tendril, lemon zest, farmhouse cider, and sea spray, with a herbal hint of fennel seed, soft dill fronds and river mint. The palate is bright, light, and crisp – ultra-light in body, with rippling, salivating acidity and a long finish framed by salty minerality. There’s also an appealing phenolic note of Granny Smith apple skin on the finish to add complexity, and some judicious lees work adds just enough creamy texture to keep the wine from becoming too lean. While many piquepouls from both France and Australia are simple quaffers built to wash down seafood, this wine offers surprising depth and length – proof that Yangarra have quickly mastered how to grow and make this promising climate-apt variety.

Themes of this wine

Piquepoul

Meaning something like “lip stinger” in southern French dialect, piquepoul (sometimes spelled ‘picpoul’ here) produces very zippy, light dry whites, principally from the Languedoc and most famously from the shores of the Étang de Thau lagoon near the village of Pinet. It’s a wine that is ideally suited to the seafood from both the Étang de Thau and the Mediterranean coast just beyond that. In Australia, plantings are fledgling, with both Yangarra and Coriole making notable expressions and interest in the variety building in the Barossa Valley. Flavours generally sit in the apple and yellow-skinned citrus zone, with low alcohols and elevated acidity being hallmark characteristics.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only forty minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over eighty cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Biodynamics

An organic farming method created by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s, biodynamics is a slightly mystical approach, employing elaborate organic ‘preparations’ to restore the natural balance of the soil and encourage microorganisms. It also observes the lunar cycle to prescribe actions in the vineyard and winery. Why some of it works is not clearly understood, but it is used by some of the world’s greatest producers.

Home > Wines We Love > 2020 Yangarra ‘High Sands’ Grenache

The Yangarra flagship from deepest sandy soils and oldest vines, this is regal but rugged expression, red and dark fruits, earthy, mineral, utterly individual.

Producer
Yangarra
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$300
Vintage

2020
Variety/Varieties

Grenache
Alc./Vol.

14.5%

The Yangarra flagship from deepest sandy soils and oldest vines, this is regal but rugged expression, red and dark fruits, earthy, mineral, utterly individual.

Yangarra Estate possesses over 25 per cent of the old vine grenache in McLaren Vale. This wine is sourced from a special block of the original 1946 vines in the highest and coolest part of the estate, with the sand layer over a metre deep. Certified organic and biodynamic, the ‘High Sands’ vineyard was recently recognised as Australia’s ‘Old Vineyard of the Year’.

Tasting note

From the deeply sandy and most elevated section of old vines on the Yangarra Estate – the ‘High Sands’ block – this is always an utterly individual expression. Fragrant, sandy soils do that, but it’s also so very savoury, like an expression of a hard-won existence, eking out a living. Notes of cacao nibs, currants, dried orange peel, tar, dried cranberry and a sanguine, rusty nail character all feature. Sinewy, dry toned, with dates and muscatel grape notes, this feels like the earth it comes from.

Themes of this wine

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Biodynamic

An organic farming method created by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s, biodynamics is a slightly mystical approach, employing elaborate organic ‘preparations’ to restore the natural balance of the soil and encourage microorganisms. It also observes the lunar cycle to prescribe actions in the vineyard and winery. Why some of it works is not clearly understood, but it is used by some of the world’s greatest producers.

Home > Wines We Love > 2022 Yangarra Piquepoul

The first release of this variety from the biodynamic Yangarra, this has the appealing freshness of the variety paired with apple and citrus, but also an engaging mineral savouriness to up the interest.

Producer
Yangarra
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$30
Vintage

2022
Variety/Varieties
Alc./Vol.

11.5%

A southern French variety that is only just getting an airing in this country, piquepoul typically makes straightforward, racy whites, built for seafood and slaking thirst. The first release of this variety from the biodynamic Yangarra, this has the appealing freshness of the variety paired with apple and citrus, but also an engaging mineral savouriness to up the interest.

Tasting note

This version of piquepoul leans a little more into the savoury, with earthy notes, sage and a distinct fennel seed and frond note to adorn the green apple canvas. Zippy, dry refreshment is still the order of the day, but a shaving off of the corners with some lees ageing take this away from any chance of aridity.

Themes of this wine

Piquepoul/Picpoul

Meaning something like “lip stinger” in dialect, piquepoul produces very zippy, light dry whites, principally from the Languedoc, and most famously from Pinet. It’s a wine that is ideally suited to the seafood from both the lagoon that sits to the east and the Mediterranean coast just beyond that. In Australia, plantings are fledgling, with both Yangarra and Coriole making notable expressions. Flavours generally sit in the apple and yellow-skinned citrus zone, with the elevated acidity a hallmark characteristic.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Biodynamic

An organic farming method created by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s, biodynamics is a slightly mystical approach, employing elaborate organic ‘preparations’ to restore the natural balance of the soil and encourage microorganisms. It also observes the lunar cycle to prescribe actions in the vineyard and winery. Why some of it works is not clearly understood, but it is used by some of the world’s greatest producers.

Home > Wines We Love > 2019 Yangarra ‘Roux Beauté’ Roussanne

Layers of citrus, spice and orchard fruit, overlaid with chalky, savoury accents.

Producer
Yangarra
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$60
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Roussanne
Alc./Vol.

14.5%

Yangarra Estate’s winemaker Pete Fraser has been making this skinsy, ceramic-egg-raised Roussanne since 2013, and the latest iteration is one of the best, with layers of citrus, spice and orchard fruit, overlaid with chalky, savoury accents.

Tasting note

Fermented and aged in small ceramic eggs – half fermented as juice, the rest on skins for 193 days, with the final blend 60/40 respectively – this is a deep greenish gold in colour, with aromas of dried sage, hay, dried apple, orange pith, jasmine nectar, wax and spice, with a chalky almost volcanic mineral feel to it. The flavours are layered but they play down a fine, dry-toned and savoury line, with flexing texture pushing up against fine grip and placid but present acidity, a burr of gentle tannin leaving a lasting impression, beckoning for more, and for food.

Themes of this wine

Roussanne

Famously blended in the Northern Rhône with viognier and marsanne, roussanne also features in the white blends of the Southern Rhône. It has been present in Victorian vineyards since the 19th century, but has never been a major player. Here, it is typically blended with its Northern Rhône companions, though varietal bottlings are not unheard of. The flavours of Roussanne can tend to the herbal, but more sage-like than grassy.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Egg-shaped fermenters

Amphorae are some of the most ancient winemaking vessels, and the modern practice of using ovoid fermenters is a very similar idea, with the shape encouraging ferment vectors to swirl and tumble. While amphorae are typically made from clay, eggs come in a range of materials, from concrete to ceramic to steel.

Home > Wines We Love > 2019 Yangarra ‘Ovitelli’ Grenache

A great example of why grenache is so hot right now. Savoury, aromatic, refined and with a commanding web of tannin, this is compelling stuff.

Producer
Yangarra
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$60
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Grenache
Alc./Vol.

14%

From vines planted to sand in 1946, this is a powerful example of why grenache is so hot right now. Savoury, aromatic, refined and with a commanding web of tannin, this is compelling stuff.

Tasting note

Raised in ceramic eggs, this spent 158 days on skins post fermentation, resulting in a wine that is both delicate and savoury. There’s a perfume of red fruits and florals, with dried orange peel, sun-warmed terracotta and dried cranberries. It’s hard not to think of nebbiolo, but it’s firmly grenache, even if the assertive but finely textured tannins pull you further in the other direction. There’s a fineness through the wine, a neatly pitched elegance, but with the generosity of the variety underpinning it, too.

Themes of this wine

Grenache

The great grape of the Southern Rhône, grenache, has also found many homes around the world, from Spain, to Italy, to California, while Australia is home to the world’s oldest productive grenache vines, planted in 1948. Today, a renaissance is seeing the grape championed, with makers in McLaren Vale arguably turning out the most compelling examples.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is inside Adelaide’s metropolitan area. And although the township itself is only 40 minutes by car from central Adelaide and vineyards brush up against ever-encroaching housing, McLaren Vale remains unaffected by the urban sprawl. With deeply etched history, the Vale has a slow-paced sense of calm and an extraordinary wealth of untrammelled beauty. It is home to some of this country’s most beautifully pristine beaches, as well as some of the world’s most forward-thinking grape-growers and winemakers. And with over 80 cellar doors, it is an essential destination for wine lovers – and anyone else, for that matter.

Egg-shaped fermenters

Amphorae are some of the most ancient winemaking vessels, and the modern practice of using ovoid fermenters is a very similar idea, with the shape encouraging ferment vectors to swirl and tumble. While amphorae are typically made from clay, eggs come in a range of materials, from concrete to ceramic to steel.

2024 Yangarra Field Blend McLaren Vale

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Grenache

McLaren Vale

Climate-apt viticulture

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Piquepoul

McLaren Vale

Biodynamics

The Yangarra flagship from deepest sandy soils and oldest vines, this is regal but rugged expression, red and dark fruits, earthy, mineral, utterly individual.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Grenache

McLaren Vale

Biodynamic

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Piquepoul/Picpoul

McLaren Vale

Biodynamic

Yangarra Estate’s winemaker Pete Fraser has been making this skinsy, ceramic-egg-raised Roussanne since 2013, and the latest iteration is one of the best, with layers of citrus, spice and orchard fruit, overlaid with chalky, savoury accents.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Roussanne

McLaren Vale

Egg-shaped fermenters

From vines planted to sand in 1946, this is a powerful example of why grenache is so hot right now. Savoury, aromatic, refined and with a commanding web of tannin, this is compelling stuff.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Grenache

McLaren Vale

Egg-shaped fermenters

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