2010 Yelland and Papps Divine Grenache

From an impressive Barossa Valley vintage comes a powerful and flavoursome wine made from Grenache north of Greenock, planted in the 19^th century. The Divine range are premium wines produced by Yelland and Papps. Made in a familiar and consistent style, they tend to be fully flavoured yet built to last.
 

Tasting Note:

Juicy, round red and black cherry, mixed black fruit merged neatly with Christmas cake spices. Primary fruit at the front and middle especially.  Finishes with elegant power, no overt confection.  Luscious, approachable and moreish, though kept together thanks to its impressive structure.

Makes a bold impression with a fruit intensity and  rich oak treatment that will please many.

I would probably drink this now, given the few years in the bottle and the luscious fruit on offer, though it would cruise through cellaring for 10 years.

RRP: $75
ABV: 14.5%
Score: 94+ pts
Website: www.yellandandpapps.com

Yelland and Papps 2012 Vin De Soif

The Yelland and Papps Vin De Soif returns for 2012 after the surprisingly good debut in 2011 (given the vintage).

Having purchased a few bottles of the 2012 Vin De Soif late last year, I was curious to see how this early drinking wine had developed after 6 months extra in the bottle:

An upfront sweet black and red fruit nose with hints of spice, vanilla and a slight earthy meatiness.

Energizes the palate with a juicy, medium bodied combination of blackberry, dark cherry, A mix of crunchy citric acidity, earthy stalkyness and soft, barely-there tannins at the back palate. The finish was initially savoury, though opened up with more expressive sweet fruit over time. 

A smart, affordable blend of 65% Grenache, 27% Mataro, 5% Shiraz & 3% Carignan, the Vin De Soif is consciously a drink now, enjoy now, and think about it later style of wine, though offers much more to the casual and enthusiastic drinker than a similarly priced single varietal or conventional blend ‘done by the numbers’. Food matchings are numerous – this vintage Vin De Soif would go particularly well with thin crust Italian pizza, pasta with a red sauce, bbq meats or chargrilled eggplant Turkish pizza – as versatile as it is gluggable. Day two tasting confirmed the MO of this wine – drink early and enthusiastically.

Rating: 88 pts

ABV: 14%

RRP: $20

Website: http://www.yellandandpapps.com/

2011 Yelland and Papps Devote Old Vine Grenache

It was 2009 when Red and I visited the Barossa Valley and did a tasting of Yelland and Papps wines in Susan and Michael Papp's dining room (prior to their cellar door opening). From those relatively early years for the winery to the present day, they have expanded their range considerably across three clear price points, all of comparatively high quality.

Despite there being several difficult vintages in the last 5 years, Yelland and Papps have managed to produce good to very good wines in small volume, regardless -or in spite- of vintage.

In contrast to the difficult, mostly heat affected Barossa vintages in recent memory (2003, 2007, 2008), 2011 wet, wet, wet – one of the wettest in decades.  As such, it presented winemakers with a range of different challenges. This has come out in the wines I have tried from this vintage across most regions in Australia. However, 2011 has also presented winemakers with the opportunity to make good wines of a different character to the standard, 'typical vintage' style.

With all of this in mind, I was interested to try one of Yelland and Papps' strongest wines - the Old Vine Grenache. This has been a consistently reliable wine over several years, and once again, it holds its head up in this tricky vintage, adding a stylistic twist.

Tasting Note:

Stalky, herbal nose pinot colour, initially some new leather and varnish, and with air, considerable white pepper.

On opening, medium bodied and savoury. Softening red cherry and raspberry fruit, mixed spice, pleasant herbaceous notes.

Lighter bodied and less intense fruit than in the past, not as primary or rounded, and more restrained with a sharper acidity that adds a bit of zing.  Spicy and peppery to the last.

Another good result from a difficult vintage for Yelland and Papps, and a definite ‘point of difference’ wine based on the several vintages of Devote Old Vine Grenache tasted previously.

ABV:  14.0%

RRP: $35

Score: 90pts

Website: www.yellandandpapps.com

2012 Head Old Vines Grenache (Barossa Valley)

The 2010 of this wine remains one of the best bottles of Grenache I have had. The 2012 is not as immediately impressive, but in fact everything is there to suggest that it may give the 2010 a run for its money in 5-10 years time.

It’s just medium bodied, lithe, juicy, and with a lovely core of drying acidity that will sustain the wine through extended cellaring. Redskins, raspberries, florals, spice and just a hint of aniseed. A bit of stalkiness too. It turns very savoury as it pushes through to a long finish. Another 5 years should see more flesh, complexity and ultimately enjoyment here. Impressive.

Rated: 4 Stars +
RRP: $40
ABV: 14.5%
Drink: 2015-2022+
Closure: Screwcap
Website: www.headwines.com.au


Red

2011 Yelland and Papps Vin De Soif (Grenache Mataro Shiraz Carignan)

The new vintage release of the entry-level Yelland and Papps ‘Delight’ range see’s the bottles kitted out in a new, contemporary label that fits snugly with the spirit of the Delight wines.

The Vin De Soif, a new addition to the range, leaps out of the blocks with a surprisingly fragrant, spicy nose of cloves, dried green herbs and salted liquorice. On the palate, the wine is a bit more mellowed; relaxed but generous. Medium bodied with juicy blackberry, dark cherry and raspberry fruits flavours, herbaceous and meaty on the mid and back palate, finishing with soft, drying tannin.
The 14.5% abv does not stand out or throw-out the balance of the wine.
‘Vin de Soif’ can be broadly translated into English as ‘thirst quenching wine’, and as such, this wine is aptly named. You could easily serve it slightly chilled in summer or more conventionally alongside Mediterranean food in the cooler months. Moreish and approachable,  I found it a good value wine to enjoy here and now, saving the contemplation for conversations at the end of the night.

Rating: 89 pts

RRP: $19.95
ABV: 14.5%
Winery Website: www.yellandandpapps.com

2009 Yelland & Papps Divine Grenache (Barossa Valley)

I showed this to a mate who likes his wine but is not especially knowledgeable and generally drinks sub $20 wine (probably represents the typical wine consumer when you think about it). Upon trying a glass of this, he declared that it was the best wine he had ever had (he wasn’t aware of the price when he made that comment). A few nights later I showed him the 2010 Cirillo Vincent Grenache, a far cheaper yet also very good Grenache, which he also really enjoyed. Could well-made Grenache become a more popular drink with the punters? From a taste and drinkability perspective I don’t see why not. It’s more an image/perception issue at present (or lack thereof) that arguably holds grenache back from being more broadly consumed.

I love the intent and detail behind this wine. Hand sorted fruit off a vineyard in the Greenock sub-region that was planted in the 1880's. The fruit was cropped at 1.0 tonnes per acre. For the winemaking I’ll quote the winery

Fermented on skins in an open fermenter for 13 days and then gently basket pressed, this small parcel of wine was then transferred to 10 % new and 90% old French(100%) fine grain hogsheads for 24 months maturation. Once matured the wine was bottled unfiltered and then spent 12 months maturing in bottle.

It is an expensive wine, but the above provides context and to my mind, justification for that cost.

Before the actual tasting note, I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to drink this wine, or any Grenache, or indeed most red wine at wine “room temperature”, which is to say 16-18 degrees, and not Australian summer room temperature. It made a marked difference with this wine, and has done so with many wines I have looked at (pop your red wine in the fridge for 20-30 minutes in the middle of summer).

Having tasted this over a few days the thing that stayed with me was this wine’s texture. It combines the juicy joy that is grenache, with a serious structure, and a lovely earthy texture that marks it out from many of its peers. Berry fruit, spice, and a hint of creamy oak are in the mix, but in some ways the wine is unsurprisingly a bit closed at present. There’s a latent complexity here though, and given a few more years in the cellar i think this wine will really sing. A nice persistance of flavour finishes the wine off nicely. 4 Stars +

Rated:
+

ABV: 14.9%
RRP: $75
Closure: Screwcap
Website: http://www.yellandandpapps.com/


Red

Yelland and Papps 2009 Devote Old Vine Grenache

Small volume, hand crafted, old vine Grenache is Yelland and Papps’ strongest suit and in 2009 they have once again produced a top quality wine.
Familiar raspberry, cherry, vanilla and old oak-infused allspice mesh smoothly together on the nose and follow through to the palate. There is a vibrancy to the fruit that was not as evident in the heatwave vintages of 2007 and 2008 and a pleasant earthy stalkyness appears on the finish.

For all of the promising űber-savoury, ‘striving for complexity’ Grenache coming out recently this wine is comforting, enjoyable, flavoursome yet still contemplative. The best of both worlds.

Rating:

/ 93pts

Price: $32
ABV: 14.5%

Website: http://yellandandpapps.com/

2010 Head Old Vine Grenache (Barossa Valley)

This is the best Grenache I have had.

Admittedly, I’ve not yet had the pleasure of a Chateau Rayas, or some of the other European benchmark Grenache. But of my own experience across Spanish Garnacha, Southern Rhone Grenache, and our own home-grown Grenache, this 2010 offering from Alex Head stands tall. It comes off an 80 year old vineyard from the Greenock sub-region in the Barossa.

This is a wine that needs plenty of air and time. It had a stalky bitterness on day one that I found a touch distracting, but by days two and three it had integrated and become part of the complex whole that is this fantastic wine. It smells beautiful. It’s perfumed and floral, with lovely berry fruit and spice. To drink it is perfectly ripe and balanced. Lovely sweet berry fruit on entry before turning more savoury the further it moves along the palate. Texture, intensity and weight all give the wine a sense of gravitas, and yet it retains a lightness of touch throughout. Fine, yet persistent acidity and tannins are evident, but not obtrusive, making it a wonderful food wine. A long finish tops it all off. To do the wine justice it needs to be left alone for at least a few years, and everything is there to suggest this is a Grenache for the long haul.

Apparently it’s all sold out now, but if you manage to find it around the traps, it’s worth paying above its RRP for. My score kept going up over the 3 days. 4.5 Stars.

Rated:


RRP: $35
ABV: 14.5%
Website: http://www.headwines.com.au/


Red