Yelland & Papps Limited Cuvée Grenache 2024
- 94
- $129
- Drink by: 2025-2035
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The fruit for this wine came from a neglected block of low-yielding dry-grown bush vines in Marananga that were planted into deep red soils in 1956. In 2024, Susan and Michael were given enough to fill a single French oak barrel. It was wild-fermented with minimal intervention in new oak. Cedar and clove oak notes sit forward to start before an unfurling of graphite and iodine-laced minerality, along with blackberry, plum, black-cherry conserve and star anise. There’s some emergent warm-sand earthiness with air, and some mountain herbs adding an attractive bitter tone. It’s the minerality that keeps this all in check, shooting through the wine’s core and acting as a buoy. The palate is intense and very mineral, with iodine, raspberry coulis, warm sand, black cherry, blackberry pie, bitter herbs and graphite gliding high through the mouth, putting on a masterclass in power without weight. Powdery tannins are fine but firm, with lovely juicy acidity distracting from the verticality through a very long finish. Impressive. This is built for the long haul, and the oak does play a material role at this early stage of its life, so this is one to lay down for five to ten years in order to see its true worth.
Tom Kline is a wine writer, reviewer, presenter, and educator based in Victoria, Australia. He is the Australian correspondent for the internationally respected publications Jasper Morris Inside Burgundy and Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux, where he highlights the top tier of Australian wine for a global audience. Tom also writes for leading outlets including Decanter (UK), Wine Spectator (US), and Halliday Magazine, among others. An experienced wine show judge and WSET educator, he has authored several consumer-focused wine courses aimed at making wine more accessible and engaging. In 2023, Tom was awarded Best Published Feature Article or Wine Column at the prestigious Wine Communicator Awards, presented by Wine Communicators of Australia.
