Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 1500ml 2019

96 POINTS

Matthew Jukes - Decanter

This elegant, compact Great Australian Red blend of Cabernet and Shiraz (gold medallist in the 2023 competition of that name) rolls on and on for minutes. All the energies and complexities have been captured, and instead of being released in a firework explosion of flavour, they rumble like distant thunder, building and growing on the palate, teasing and attenuating the flavour seemingly without end. It is nothing short of spectacular.

96 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday Wine Companion

Since its first release in 1962, the Yalumba Signature cabernet/shiraz blend has shown a fine pedigree of cellar-worthy wines, and it looks like that bloodline will continue with the 2019 release. Deep, bright crimson in the glass and densely packed with ripe blackberry, black cherry, plum and cassis fruit notes on a bed of fine spice, licorice, cedar, dark chocolate, vanillin oak and light almond blossom tones. There's a wonderful tannin structure here, fine, compact and sandy, lending perfect structure to the pure black fruits. Nothing heavy or overblown, everything in its place, the confluence of fruit/tannin/acidity on song. Pop some in your glass or the cellar. You choose.

95 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

Winemaker Kevin Glastonbury is (finally!) the signatory on the bottle. What a great and long-standing person he has been at Yalumba, so affable, shifting the dial gradually, open minded and a strong ambassador for the wines. It’s 52% cabernet, 48% shiraz. Good year for it, KG explains. It’s heady in its perfume, thick scents of ripe raspberry, vanilla coffee, boysenberry and cedar with whiffs of green herb. The palate is impossibly rich and soft, smooth and velvety, voluptuous but with great freshness and a minty lift. Hedonistic style, but the brightness is really appealing, and the wine has veered well away from its past dry, firm, somewhat taxing-in-youth structural styles. A light squeeze of tannin. It’s got Aussie classic written all over it. Delicious drinking for the bolder red lover, or others!

94 POINTS

Ned Goodwin - JamesSuckling.com

A full-weighted, archetypal Aussie blend. Cabernet and shiraz, both from the Barossa. The top wines of Yalumba have undergone considerable refinement in recent years. The tannins, better managed; the fruit, more restrained; the oak, judicious. Here, an example. Fresh and lithe. Scents of anise, bay leaf and kirsch, with a nourishing core of beef bouillon. An expansive sweetness grows in trajectory, with a douse of menthol at the finish. Drinkable now, but best from 2025.

94 POINTS

Angus Hughson - Vinous

This beautifully composed 2019 Cabernet & Shiraz The Signature from Barossa is built for the long haul but takes a little time to show its cards. It starts a little shy with cascading blackberry, mulberry and cedar aromas while stocky complexity from extended oak maturation shows. A lovely palate combines dense fruits, good underlying acidity and a firm bed of tannins. A fantastic conclusion, still keeping its shape and composure over a long, sustained finish.

93 POINTS

Jeremy Oliver

Surprisingly even, ripe and polished from this warmer season, this is a plush, oaky and well-structured blend whose faintly herbal aromas of dark berries, dark plums, dark chocolates and polished cedar/vanilla oak are lifted by notes of fiery spice and floral aspects. It's full-bodied, richly fruited and handsomely presented, with a long, seamless palate underpinned by firm, powdery tannins that finishes with length and balance. It's true to type but lacks the real cut of complexity and class for an even higher rating.

93 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2019 The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz is the 49th vintage of this cuvée (since 1962) and is this year named for Yalumba winemaker Kevin Glastonbury and Chief Viticulturist Robin Nettlebeck. The wine is aromatically powerful and confident, with dark chocolate, blood plum, raspberry coulis, peppercorns and licorice. On the palate, the fruit plays this exact role, showing a cavalcade of tannic extract that frames the supple fruit. The flavor through the finish tapers quickly off a high to a long but much quieter finish than the aromas and front of the wine suggest that it would. Classically styled Cabernet Shiraz here. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under cork.

93 POINTS

Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast

This is an open-knit, polished and characterful bottling of The Signature, with heady, bright aromas of cherry chocolate, tomato pulp, red licorice and savory, earthy spices. The palate is powerful yet silky and harmonious, with chiseled, fine tannins, and lovely fruit purity and freshness. Still young and tightly wound now, it should cellar with grace for at least another seven to 10 years.