Yalumba The Caley Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2019

98 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday's Wine Companion

The Caley from Yalumba has quickly established itself as one of the benchmark wines in the 'Great Australian Blend' category. An elegant representation of how well Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon and Barossa shiraz (at 77/33% split) can work together in the right hands. There is a black-fruited intensity to its form, fine spice and cedar tones suffusing slowly through the wine with tobacco, dried herbs, pressed flowers, pencil shavings, cinnamon and roast beef. Texturally, it's a stunning wine: super pure black fruits, a silken flow, fine, powdery tannin, lacy acidity and a graceful, extended retreat from the mouth with lingering black fruit flavours, cedar and spice.

96 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

To be released on the first day of June. This is about 75% Coonawarra cabernet, a great backbone for this premium release. Louisa Rose offers, ‘the block is distinctive, the block has clay underpinning it, maybe keeping things fresher too. Just special, always’. Beautiful, gliding, compact, complex red wine. Savoury, fresh, brooding, mellow, guttural, minerally. Scents of aniseed, dark cherry, blackcurrants, green olive, mint, sandalwood, gingery spice, turned earth and salt bush. Wonderful perfume. Tannins are flexible, rivulets bolting through the plushness of medium to full fruit and spice flavour, glorious in extension and tightening with each sip. Feels youthful and huge in its potential. Magnificent.

96 POINTS

Andrew Caillard MW

Deep crimson. Intense black cherry, cassis, dark chocolate, roasted chestnut aromas. Inky deep, voluminous and chocolaty with abundant dark cherry, cassis flavours, fine dense velvety tannins and well-integrated roasted chestnut, marzipan notes. Builds chocolaty firm at the finish with ample dark berry fruits. Elemental and powerfully structured wine with the density, volume and torque for long term aging. Keep for a while to allow the elements to fold. A high quality vintage destined for a great cellaring future. 75% Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 25% Barossa Shiraz. 19 months maturation in 24% new and seasoned French Barriques.

95 POINTS

Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast

A blend of old-vine fruit from both Coonawarra and Barossa, this is an elegant and understated icon bottling that's still very young. Plump berries are at the core, with leafy Cab-like edges, leather, gentle peppery spice and a slight smoky nuance. Tannins are muscular yet pliable, making room for the supple fruit, but overwhelming by the finish, indicating the need for more time in bottle.

Matthew Jukes

The indelible truth about 2019 The Caley is that it is extraordinarily sleek and polished with a refined spine of freshness and control that captures the senses. The characteristics that make The Caley the most astounding of all Cabernet/Shiraz bends are not simply the parcels, the grapes and the blend but the immense skill in chaperoning these qualities drawn from far-flung paddocks and via extremely careful husbandry into the bottle. 19.5/20