Yalumba Octavius Barossa Old Vine Shiraz 2018

A famous wine which, fortunately, does not receive quite the extended oak treatment it once did. From Barossa vines dating back to 1854, maturation is in Yalumba-coopered oak octaves – 21 months in a mix of 25% new French barriques and hogsheads and the remainder in one-year and older French octaves (which are 100-litre oak barrels), barriques and hogsheads. It is now one of the few wines to be available through the La Place de Bordeaux system, reserved for the world’s finest. Black cherry hue. This is still very young and needs a good four to six years before it is likely to come into its own. Then it should offer fifteen to twenty years of pleasure, for the patient. There is still plenty of oak evident at this early stage, but it is integrating well, if slowly, showing good concentration, power and intensity. At this early stage, it is still a bit of a bruiser but a finely balanced one and a wine which shows every sign that the transformation, when it comes, will be very exciting. Seamless and with fine tannins, there is excellent length and it unfurls blackcurrants, raspberries, cranberries, mocha, hot chocolate, beefstock and floral notes on the palate.