2017 Yarra Yering Dry No. 1 Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
The 2017 Dry Red Wine No. 1 is still tightly wound. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot, it offers up precise aromas of blackcurrant, red currant, black olive and dried herbs. Excellent balance follows, with a firm bed of tannins behind a strong seam of gravel and blackberry flavors, closing with a lengthy finish. This is a good claret style with long aging potential.
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
I collect this wine each vintage. I believe it's one of the great Cabernet blends in Australia, driven in no small way by the deft hand and precise palate of winemaker Sarah Crowe. It's the handling of tannin and the way the fruit has a luminous vitality (in sync with those tannins) that make it great. So, this 2017 Dry Red No 1 is everything I have just explained. It's alive in the glass, and after recently completing a vertical tasting of these wines back to 2013 (a small window I know), it is clear to me that these wines remain a precious part of Australia's wine story. They are SO YARRA . . . in the best possible way.
Dark ruby. Pungent cherry, dark berry, pipe tobacco, vanilla and candied rose aromas, along with an oak spice nuance. Vibrant and sharply delineated on the palate, displaying concentrated black currant, bitter cherry, floral pastille and succulent herb flavors that turn sweeter with aeration. Shows strong tenacity on the floral-accented finish, which is framed by youthfully gripping tannins.
About two-thirds Cabernet Sauvignon plus Merlot, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Purplish crimson. Fresh blackcurrant nose. Very clean and pure. Not much personality yet and certainly not emphatic but clean and embryonic – ready to express itself as it ages in bottle. (JR)