I’m the kind of person that believes that without actually trying something, you are not really able to put yourself in the best position to comment constructively on it. So I am happy to finally get to try the wines of a company that gets a significant amount of (mostly negative) discussion around the “serious” wine community.
Both bottles were samples provided by the winery and both were tasted from Riedel “O Series” Cabernet/Merlot (414/0) stemless glassware.
“The Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
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Fast Facts: Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon Region: Multiple Country: Australia Winemaker: John Casella Closure: Nucork Synthetic Alcohol: 13.5% Cost: Around $9 USD Source: Winery Sample Available in: USA Winery Website: Casella |
Tasting Note: A very deep purple colour. The nose provides some floral notes, cherry, pastilles, cedar oak and jammy sweet red fruit. Easy to drink – smooth, ripe, juicy, well balanced and nothing sticking out of place.
When to Drink: Now – 2007. It may live through to around 2009, but I think that it has the most to offer early in its life.
Verdict: This wine has still has plenty of ripe fruit flavour, but has the low level structure to sit above the non reserve bottling as being a wine that people may take a step up to drinking. 87 points.
“The Reserve” Merlot 2004
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Fast Facts: Variety: Merlot Region: Multiple Country: Australia Winemaker: John Casella Closure: Nucork Synthetic Alcohol: 13.5% Cost: Around $9 USD Source: Winery Sample Available in: USA and Australia Winery Website: Casella |
Tasting Note: Deep ruby red in colour. The nose leaves you in no doubt that the grapes were ripe with boisterous plum and blueberry fruit as well as dark chocolate and some medium level vanilla oak. The palate is dry, balanced and is easy to drink with soft tannins and a smooth texture.
When to Drink: Now – 2007
Verdict: A well made wine that delivers some varietal typicity at a good price. 86 points.
Summary: Yellow tail is a favourite target of ridicule for some wine lovers (whether they have tried any of the wines or not), but they are a family owned company that has put in a significant amount of hard work over the past 40 years to achieve their success (something that the big wine companies in Australia weren’t able to do in the USA). Unquestionably, they know their target market well and deliver exactly what drinkers desire at those price points.
I haven’t tried them yet, not for any particular reason, but now you’ve shown the alcohol, I will search them out, not that I think I will have to look to hard. It seems to me more and more, that 13.5% is about the limit for wines that I really enjoy.
13.5% could be 15% or 12%.
I have tried a few of the [yellow tail] wines and they are OK. The merlot in particular was quite OK.
GW
How far off the mark are they allowed to be? It would be a real shame if they are legally fudging the figures.
In Australia they are allowed 1.5% + or –
Happens quite often. Labels are often printed before the wine has finished fermenting…
GW
Doesn’t the winemaker know from the sugar how much alcohol he or she will finish up with? Pretty accurately. + or – about 9% seems unusually generous.
Sometimes before picking even..
Sometimes it is a political (is that the right word?) where they want the wine to show a certain alcohol. i.e. 13.5% (ah a normal alcohol) or 14.5 (look this is big and ripe I’ll buy it..) type of thing.
GW
I could swear blind that both of these wines have dropped a couple of points since the original review?
GW
On the instances where I’ve tried the Yellowtail Reserves, I’ve acutally not minded them with the shiraz being my favourite. However, all the premium releases were very big wines and oaky, but hey – at least they’re stylistically consistent. Can’t ask for much more than that!
cheers
Max
I really enjoyed the ’03 shiraz reserve…hopefully the ’04 is as good and gets cheaper with the glut!