It takes a long time to build up to an iconic wine brand status. It seems it takes an equally long time to lose it. I have not been familiar with Yarra Yering for many years, but yesterday I tried the following wines:
2013 Warramate Chardonnay
2011 Yarra Yering Chardonnay
2011 Warramate Pinot Noir
2012 Warramate Cabernets
2011 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1
2008 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1
2011 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 2
2007 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 2
2011 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 3
2010 Yarra Yering Underhill Shiraz
2007 Yarra Yering Underhill Shiraz
Underhill is a neighbouring vineyard bought many years ago, Warramate is also in the neighbourhood, bought more recently. The No 1 wine is the Bordeaux blend, mainly Cabernet Sauvignon I believe, No 2 is Shiraz, and No 3 is a blend of five Portuguese varieties, traditionally used to make Port.
I remember these wines having attractive fragrant feminine aromatics, built on a soft, but solid structure of fine tannins.
When I tasted the wines mentioned above, I found them thin, often underripe, without much shape, unattractive mouthfeel and length on the finish. I scored the wines 84 to 89 points. Only the 2011 Dry Red No 2 achieved 90 points, as it showed some good balance.
I remember some 15 years ago, I pulled a Dry Red No 1 from the 80s out of the cellar. It still had the price label on the bottle: $ 6.99. Today, all of these wines other than the Warramate cost $100 per bottle. Phew! As the saying goes: Money better spent elsewhere.
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3 comments:
Interesting thoughts. I haven't tried the '11s from Yarra Yering. Good red '11s from the YV are perhaps in a minority, so that may have played a role. Although I'm not sure they dropped prices to compensate, which is a pity if correct.
I've never been particularly taken by, nor offended, by most of the YY wines. Well, except perhaps on pricing. The exception for me is the Dry Red No. 1, which I have found capable of great things and worthy of interest. I have a tasting note for the '08 back in 2010 and it seemed that I thought it had potential, but interested to see it apparently did not perform on the day.
We pulled out a bottle of Dry Red no something at Xmas a few years back and it was exceptional. I remember being very annoyed that I was pregnant and could only have a few sips and really annoyed that hubby chose that occasion (while I was pregnant) to open it.
Yes, I have had the odd very good and intriguing Dry Red No 1 in the past. Thank you for sharing your experiences.
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