Hill-Smith has just been to France, where he was introducing another top-class Yalumba red, The Octavius Shiraz, to an elite distribution network known as La Place de Bordeaux, which in the past has sold the finest Bordeaux wines to 170 countries around the world. “Hopefully it makes people there think differently, and positively, about what we do at the high end,” he said. However, a wine like The Caley – and like Henschke’s Hill of Grace, and of course the regular Penfolds heroes, as well as a decent crate-load of other serious contenders – are now turning heads and convincing overseas pundits that we can play in the same league as the best of France and Italy. We are more regarded, in general terms, for good wine done well. The 2023 GAR competition was, in fact, the fourth time Yalumba’s The Caley has won overall honours above scores of the finest other similar blends from around the country (it previously won in 2014, 20).Īt its embargoed unveiling, Hill-Smith bemoaned the perception of Australian wine – that we are not seen as a member of the elite wine “club” in the world. “It is a unique and age-worthy flagbearer to stand confidently alongside the benchmark red wines of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône, Piedmont, Tuscany and California,” they add confidently. The Cabernet-Shiraz blend, they say, is Australia’s definitive wine style.

The judging, known as The Great Australian Red (GAR), celebrates the blend they believe is the all-conquering Australian. But we can report that the same wine took out the honours at a recent competition created by respected international wine writers Matthew Jukes and Tyson Stelzer. We are unable to elaborate immediately on this wine, as there is a media embargo until Monday, May 1. Robert Hill-Smith: ‘Top-end Australian wine deserves to be taken more seriously outside of Australia.’ Photo supplied “Top-end Australian wine deserves to be taken more seriously outside of Australia,” he said, speaking as he revealed the latest 2018 vintage of Yalumba’s most revered red wine, The Caley, a Coonawarra Cabernet and Barossa Shiraz blend in the grand tradition of finely styled Claret. “That’s not a real job,” is the most common retort we are all used to in that bubble – and fair enough.īut every year we are brought into the world of fine wines to hear the latest vintage release stories and assess the wines, perhaps entering the scoring frenzy that often follows while marketing folks wait for the big points to be announced.Īt a recent one of these rarefied tastings, the erudite proprietor of Yalumba, Robert Hill-Smith, remarked that Australia’s luxury wines can lift international consumers’ eyes in terms of what we are able to produce, and how we are perceived in the global marketplace. Wine media and select retailers and trade partners get to taste these wines without having to check their lotto tickets.

The most famous of all South Australian wines, Penfolds Grange, has three of them. The corner most people might dream about entering after they win the lottery – where the wine prices have at least a couple of noughts after them. What follows is all about the luxury end of the wine shop. I’d like to begin with a self-conscious warning. Join the state’s best and brightest young leaders for awards dinner Search All categories

Heroes of the storm spotlights