2021 Yangarra King's Wood Shiraz

97 POINTS

James Halliday - The Australian

From a 2.3ha Maslin Sands block, 20% whole bunches, 30% whole berries, 50% crushed; wild fermented and matured for 16 months in new and used 25hL French foudres. A wine of remarkable intensity. Purity and balance underwrite a future measured in decades.

95 POINTS

Andrew Graham - ozwinereview.com

Yangarra just makes great Grenache, but the Shiraz can be equally grand – just like the Kings Yangarra King’s Wood Shiraz 2021. It’s the winemaking that makes the difference here. The biodynamic Yangarra Vineyard is a known quantity, with this Shiraz coming from block 12 (SE facing and on ironstone soils). It might be the power of suggestion, but I see the ferrousness in the wine too. 20% whole bunches make it into the fermenter too, and some parcels spend 30 days on skins. Wild fermented too, and the juice spends 16 months in large 25hl foudre (50% new and the rest one and two-year-old). You know what else is notable? The 5.9g/L total acidity (TA) and 13.5% alcohol. Both numbers tell me these grapes were picked earlier than you might see in the Vale and with less (if any) tartaric acid added in the winery. It’s an important distinction because plenty of Aussie Shiraz is picked late, with low acidity, and then adjusted in the winery. Added acid can stick out like the proverbial dog’s balls too, an unmistakable tang that is just distracting. Acid adjustments aren’t necessarily bad (especially if it’s small amounts at the crusher) but hey, if you don’t need additions, your fruit is probably better anyway. And this Shiraz just feels right and good. Great colour – a lovely purple-red. It smells alive too – some of that McLaren Vale tilled earth, a wave of purple fruit, oak, a distant background coffee element but there. Same again on the palate, all purple berries and coffee and a grainy but flowing finish. Nailed it. There is such a wonderful open-hearted volume to this. It feels generous and welcoming, yet so well poised and right. Best drinking: now, and for a decade.

95 POINTS

Aaron Brasher - The Real Review

Dark, inky and really opaque and youthful in the glass. Evocative aromas of mulberry, rhubarb, satsuma plum, licorice, char and spice. Rich, mouth-filling and plush on the palate, oodles of dark fruits, spice and creamy oak. A powerful wine with very supportive tannins and acidity ensuring texture, mouth-feel and brightness.

94 POINTS

Ned Goodwin - Halliday's Wine Companion

There is a lighter touch to this than in past vintages, although it's still a dense, compact and richly flavoured wine. A stellar vintage and a long, gentle extraction (133 days) on skins in a 675L ceramic egg helped. Pointed northern Rhône-like aromas of blueberry, violet, white pepper, dried nori, black olive and clove. An undercarriage of briar and hedgerow imparts a welcome savouriness. The sinewy tannic mettle suggests this will age well and grow with stature in time.

94 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

Single block fancy shiraz. Lusty, slurpy red with beefiness and sweet-sour tendencies in the nicest sense. Stains the palate thick with rich, red fruitiness, some cola and light coffee elements, touches of toast and clove. Scents like all that, big wall of it, effective in delivery of McLaren Vale shirazisms. It’s a lovely red, relishes its warm-hearted appeal, delivers concentration and many layers. It feels fine tuned too, in the sense that there’s some decent tannin licks and woody spice to show edges. Nice.