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 > 2022 Koerner ‘Le Korse’ Red Wine

A midweight, digestibly bright and savoury Mediterranean-style red, this shows the Koerner artistry of making subtly nuanced blending components then merging them seamlessly.

Producer
Koerner
Region

Clare Valley
RRP

$38
Vintage

2022
Variety/Varieties

Carignan Grenache Malbec Sangiovese Sciacarello
Alc./Vol.

12.7%

Korse means Corsica, and this is a tribute to the wines of the island, or rather the Koerner’s take on them, employing two of the island’s key varieties: sangiovese (there called nieuluccio, though not all believe they are identical) and sciacarello.

Tasting note

This is beautifully midweight, savoury expression, with a taut play of tart red and dark cherries, subtle florals and subtle dark spice, with a subtle touch of star anise and brown cardamom, lavender and violets. Aged in steel, and with no whole bunch, but some whole berries, the purity of expression and the smart picking dates stand out here, with a briskness and vigour paired with engaging flavour, totally skipping the common sweet spot of many reds of the region, and surrounds.

Themes of this wine

Sangiovese

Sangiovese is Italy’s most important grape, by both volume and reputation, and it has travelled the world, establishing serious outposts across the New World. In Australia, sangiovese didn’t really start making inroads until the late 1980s, but with improved genetic material, it is now making quite an impression. The key flavour component mentioned when people talk about sangiovese is cherry, generally red, but sometimes black, with that primary profile generally accented with savoury notes of dried berries, hardy herbs, dried earth, leather and cedary notes.

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.

Sciacarello

Sciacarello is a Corsican red variety that is closely related to the Tuscan variety mammolo, if not identical to, with both characterised by freshness and floral aromatics (mammolo means violet).

Carignan

Hailing from Spain, carignan may yet find a more significant home in Australia, with retaining acidity very well and thriving in hot and dry conditions – a combination that we don’t lack for. Carignan can be a decidedly rugged grape, with dark fruit and spices often allied with gruff and very assertive tannins. The wines can also have wild herbal almost animal notes, but carignan is mostly used in blends, so this adds complexity to the best wines.

Malbec

Malbec is a French grape that has become much more synonymous with Argentina, where it dominates the country’s vineyards. In Australia, malbec is typically blended as a minor component, but with better vine material and new thinking, malbec’s personality is emerging from the shadows. With a generally dark fruit profile of plums, dark cherries and blackberries, malbec can range from the deeply fruited and ruggedly tannic to more supple and silky expressions.

Clare Valley

A couple of hours north of Adelaide, the Clare Valley is home to some of Australia’s most famous riesling vineyards, with the grape accounting for almost 40 per cent of the plantings, with shiraz a close second, though cabernet sauvignon is also made to good acclaim. The soils vary across the five subregions, from terra rossa over limestone, to grey loams over slate, to fertile alluvial soils in the north. With a continental climate, the warm conditions benefit from the cool nights, retaining acidity in the grapes while the ample sunlight pushes the fruit to ripeness during the day.

Home > Wines We Love > 2020 Hither & Yon Carignan

Carignan usually gets lost in blends, but a wine like this makes you wonder why – packed with spice and dark-fruited flavour, this finishes ultra-fresh and racy.

Producer
Hither & Yon
Region

McLaren Vale
RRP

$33
Vintage

2020
Variety/Varieties

Carignan
Alc./Vol.

14%

Carignan usually gets lost in blends, but this wine by Hither & Yon you wonder why – packed with spice and dark-fruited flavour, this finishes ultra-fresh and racy.

Tasting note

Lifted and tightly packed nose of wild forest berries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberry, with dark herbal notes, tar and black spices. The palate is intense but linear, with a super-bright line of acidity, making this racy and tight but with an appealing wildness, a kick of tart mulberries carrying the just scraping medium-weight wine through a zippy and flavourful finish.

Themes of this wine

Carignan

Hailing from Spain, carignan may yet find a more significant home in Australia, with retaining acidity very well and thriving in hot and dry conditions – a combination that we don’t lack for.

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is actually 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.

A classic dry rosé of bright and pure red fruits, but also with a bit more substance and grip – it doesn’t need food, but it’s built with it in mind.

Tasting note

A coppery onion skin colour in the glass, this is bright with red fruits, like cranberry, redcurrant, wild raspberry and cherry. There’s a classic rosé quality, in that it’s vibrant and pure fruited, but there’s plenty of flavour and depth and a subtle play down a more savoury line, with some hard herb accents and a gentle earthiness. The fruit notes carry to the palate with a watermelon rind character chiming in, while that subtle edge of savouriness is carried through with a bit of gentle grip to pair with the acidity. This is an engaging drink as is, but it’s got food written in its DNA.

Themes of this wine

Rosé

From its spiritual home in Provence, in southern France, rosé can be both democratically affordable and dizzyingly expensive, but it rarely slips into the sordid or gets hung up on being too serious. It maintains a broad welcoming smile. It says, drink me. It says, relax, have fun. Those bottles of rosy-tinged sunshine have been exported to all corners of the globe in their legion, and they have found their mark, fashioning the expectations of drinkers and shaping the decisions of winemakers. But is that all there is to rosé?

McLaren Vale

While it couldn’t feel any more removed from city life, the McLaren Vale wine region is actually 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.

2024 Yangarra Field Blend McLaren Vale

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Grenache

McLaren Vale

Climate-apt viticulture

Korse means Corsica, and this is a tribute to the wines of the island, or rather the Koerner’s take on them, employing two of the island’s key varieties: sangiovese (there called nieuluccio, though not all believe they are identical) and sciacarello.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Sangiovese

Grenache

Sciacarello

Carignan

Malbec

Clare Valley

Carignan usually gets lost in blends, but this wine by Hither & Yon you wonder why – packed with spice and dark-fruited flavour, this finishes ultra-fresh and racy.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Carignan

McLaren Vale

A classic dry rosé of bright and pure red fruits, but also with a bit more substance and grip – it doesn’t need food, but it’s built with it in mind.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Rosé

McLaren Vale

Bookmark this job

Save this search

Create Resume