2021 Yangarra 'High Sands' Grenache

High Sands Grenache is the pinnacle of our estate. Reaching deep within the sandy soil, our prized 1946 old vines produce wines that balance intense power and complexity with fragrance and beauty.

99 Points - Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com
One of the great grenache. Comes from a high-altitude vineyard planted in 1946 into deep sandy soils. There were 50% whole berries, used with the wild yeast ferment in open fermenters with a longer maceration period. Matured in a mix of Austrian and French oak foudres, puncheons and ceramic eggs. Captures the sweet succulence of the vintage with high end perfumes a feature. Medium bodied but extraordinarily rich and complex with layers of flavours building a powerful and very long palate profile. Great wine.

98 Points - Stuart Knox, The Real Review
Medium ruby-red with a bright purple tone. Raspberry, Turkish Delight and Chinese fivespice aromatics. Palate is seamless and silken: red fruits, exotic spices, dry earth and rose petals all flow across the palate, all entwined with a fine net of acidity and tannin that lifts and drives it. The never-ending finish is a chorus of fruit and spice with the finest grained but persistent tannins ensuring you keep returning to admire it.

98 Points - Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
High Sands is always a landmark wine, a site-reflective icon of peerless husbandry and elaboration, but it can be imposing, needing time and reflection. This is different, though, finely tuned, lucid, silky and sophisticated, and feeling even more expressive of place. A great, cool vintage, yes, with both depth and levity, but Pete Fraser’s quarter turns of the screw are also palpable. Fruits are red and black, ripe but with some tart wild tension, dusted in heady baharat spicing, the heartbeat of old-vine power pulsing insistently within. Flavour descriptors feel ineffectual, though. It’s the sheer graceful power of the thing that’s so beguiling, as it noiselessly swoops in, catching you in the updraft of its immense wingspan. By any measure, this is a great wine.