2015 Yalumba The Caley Cabernet & Shiraz Museum Release

98 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday Wine Companion

Another superb Caley museum release, the 2015 is a blend of 60/26/14% Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon/Barossa shiraz/Barossa cabernet sauvignon. Deep magenta with gorgeous blackberry, black cherry and satsuma plum fruits leading the way. Hints of mixed spice, pan juices, panforte, cedar, sage, rosemary, dark chocolate, tobacco and earth. The flow of fruit is pure and instantly endearing and the compact, powdery tannins hint that this still has plenty of cellaring upside in its pocket. The finish draws out beautifully, with great harmony between the wine's elements and a sense of latent power and grace.

97 POINTS

Josh Raynolds - Vinous

Dark purple. Intensely perfumed dark fruit preserve, incense, vanilla and exotic spice qualities on the nose, along with hints of pipe tobacco and woodsmoke. Offers palate-staining, concentrated black and blue fruit, violet pastille and espresso flavors that deftly blend depth and energy. Finishes youthfully chewy and precise, with steadily building tannins, resonating dark fruit, spice and floral notes and superb persistence.

96 POINTS

Ned Goodwin - Halliday Wine Companion

This is an impressive wine and an expensive one, clear of purpose, clarity, power, intensity and detail. A benchmark cabernet and shiraz meld: a blend that many Australians perceive as the homegrown quintessence. The oak cladding is salubrious. Well applied. Apparent, but not too much in lieu of the pummelling fruit: currant, dark cherry, satsuma plum and blue fruit references, brushed with five-spice, cinnamon and a gentle swathe of verdant herb before a finish marked by graphite and iodine. This is polished, sure. The tannins nicely wrought. But fresh, eminently drinkable and firmly of place, with a confident swagger and undeniable impact.

96 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

The top tier Yalumba wine now tasted for the fourth year in a row. Coonawarra and Barossa in a holy alliance. Kevin ‘KG’ Glastonbury the winemaker on the tools, and my, hasn’t he been increasing the excellence in recent years. It’s a lavish and decadent red but one with great shape and form, flow and poise. Deep, dark, brooding plum, boysenberry, fig and roast nut characters, salted liquorice and salt bush, faint clove and mocha. All of that wrapped up, bound and drawn exceptionally long, stains the palate gently, tannins hug the tongue. It feels righteous right now, but cellar fiends should be rewarded for a couple of decades too. So much going on. So much depth. A tour de force.

95 POINTS

Joe Czerwinski - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The latest vintage of Yalumba's super cuvée—the 2015 The Caley Cabernet & Shiraz—is a blend of 74% Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra and 26% Shiraz from Barossa (mostly from a Nuriootpa vineyard planted in 1901). Aged in almost 50% new French oak (all Yalumba-coopered), it offers up scents of mint, cassis, cola and plum. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, concentrated and streamlined, very much Cabernet in style. It's richly tannic and clearly needs time, possessing a long, dusty finish that features raspberry, cherry and herbal flourishes alongside subtle hints of cedar and vanilla.