Awards and Accolades

2016 Vintage: 95 Points, Special Value Wine - James Halliday, Wine Companion
"It's viognier but not as you know it. It's not big, fat nor riddled with apricots. Instead, it's savoury and really textural with grilled nuts, jasmine rice, a creamed-honey leesy character and saline-like acidity. As good as it gets and stylishly so."

2016 Vintage: 92 Points - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front
"Subtle, fine, elegant expression of viognier. Has a soft, nutty complexion amongst the faint apricot, ripe apple, peach kisses in flavour. It’s very long, supple, licked at its heels with oatmeal savouriness, finishes with a quick zest of mixed citrus. So very easy to like the calm, even nature of this wine, and flavours are pleasing. Almost like a comfort white."

From the Winery

Yangarra is a single vineyard estate located in the Blewitt Springs foothills on the northeast edge of McLaren Vale – ten miles from the sparkling Gulf St. Vincent. Home is 420 acres of vines, wild pastures, towering gum trees, creeks and natural corridors. A cooler climate coupled with our weathered, sandy soils feed our Rhône varieties unusually intense, lush and soulful flavours

The common style of Viognier in Australia is a very rich one with overt dried apricot characters. The Yangarra Viognier is less common in style, it is much more restrained, and picked earlier with the ambition of fragrance and finesse. The vines are planted on an east-facing ridge in the southeastern parcel of our estate vineyard. The soils are sand mixed with ironstone gravels and a modified VSP (vertical shoot positioned) system lets us regulate the amount of sunlight to reach the leaves and grapes. A small amount of fruit thinning is also done pre-veraison to minimise bunch crowding and to ensure even ripening.

The Viognier was handpicked and we carefully pressed only 60% of the extractable juice to eliminate any potential bitterness or astringency. No sulphur was added, fermentation was started in tank then the ferment was transferred to barrel, where it allowed to naturally complete fermentation. The wine was matured for 4 months, the lees retained and stirred monthly, and received filtration prior to bottling.