Yarra Yering Underhill Shiraz 2020

The Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia produced wine from the mid-1800s to the 1920s. In 1969, Dr Bailey Carrodus re-established winemaking in the area. He completed degrees in horticulture and winemaking and studied in France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Dr Carrodus found a vineyard site in the Yarra Valley and produced wine in the style he loved. After his passing, the vineyard was sold to two businessmen who continue to operate it with the same philosophy. The current winemaker, Sarah Crowe, was named James Halliday's 2017 Winemaker of the Year and focuses on producing high-quality wine. At Yarra Yering, all fruit is hand-picked in the cool of the morning into 10kg picking buckets and delivered directly to the winery. The fruit is then sorted and either destemmed or crushed into traditional tea chest 0.5-tonne open-fermenters. Depending on the variety, stalks may be added back during the fermentation stage in baskets for easy removal when there is just enough stalk tannin present. The 70 acres of vines at Yarra Yering are grown without irrigation on a northerly slope at the foot of the Warramate hills. The vines benefit from good drainage, all-day exposure to the sun, and enough elevation from the valley floor to avoid spring frosts. This produces wines that are inherently balanced, precise, and elegant. The low yield of 1-2 tons per acre results in fruit with great intensity and concentration of flavour, as well as an abundance of natural acidity.

Yarra Yering's Underhill Shiraz 2020 is a 100% Shiraz from Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia. The wine is sourced from a single block of Shiraz that was planted in 1973, covering 8 acres at the western extremity of the Yarra Yering vineyard. The bunches are hand-harvested and sorted before processing either as whole bunches or whole berries. Half of the block is fermented and matured in a second use 3500L upright oak cask containing 20% whole bunches and topped up for maturation with 100% whole bunch component. The remaining fermentation takes place in Yarra Yering's half-tonne open-fermenters, which are gently hand-lunged twice daily. The wine is air bag pressed to release the last fermenting juice from the many whole berries remaining. The Underhill Shiraz 2020 is aged for 12 months, with 50% of the wine aged in a 3500L one-year-old cask and the other 50% aged in French oak puncheons (500L), with only 10% new oak.

The Underhill Shiraz 2020 is a perfumed cool climate Shiraz that is deliciously medium-bodied with a lick of aniseed spice. The bright red and blue plum fruits bring a fresh energy to the palate, with some char and spice layering in structure and complexity. As always from this block, there are some cured meat and a smoke-char interest driving the back palate. The fruit is medium-weighted with oak just a faint seasoning.

The Finer Details
Style - Red Wine
Varietal - Shiraz
Country - Australia
Region - Yarra Valley, Victoria
Vintage - 2020
Bottle Size - 750ml
ABV - 13.5%