Yalumba The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon 2014
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James
Suckling - Decanter
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Wilfred
Wong -
Wine
Enthusiast -
Wine
Spectator -
Robert
Parker
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Vegan and Vegetarian Friendly
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A deeply inviting nose of blueberry, purple cherry and cassis. Plenty of violets as well as stony layer. The palate has the same pond of creamed caramel oak influence. Tannins are approachable with plenty of engagingly chewy presence.
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Decanter
Named after the prime terra-rossa-based source vineyard acquired by Yalumba in 1993, this medium-bodied, juicy Cabernet Sauvignon with fine grained tannins majors on elegance over extraction. With lively ping-pong tension between its fresh blackcurrant, lifted dried herbs and lick of bitter chocolate, it’s stylish and highly accessible. Aged for 20 months in a combination of French hogsheads, 36% new, and used American, French and Hungarian hogsheads and barriques.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The Yalumba Menzies has been one of the stars from Coonawarra. The 2014 vintage shows off Cabernet Sauvignon at its best. TASTING NOTES: This wine is rich, powerful, and stately. Pair its black fruit, pencil lead, and earthy aromas and flavors with a slowly-braised beef stew. (Tasted: September 24, 2019, San Francisco, CA)
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Wine Enthusiast
This Coonawarra Cab comes from a 45-year-old vineyard in the region’s famed terra rossa soils. A little shy at first, a ecanter is recommended. It opens to an intensely herbal nose, swimming with mint, black olive tapenade, currant, black cherry, dried flowers and a medicinal and charred oak note. The palate is rich and mouthcoating, cinched by dusty, muscular tannins. It lacks some of the elegance and complexity of other top Cabs but is nonetheless highly cellarworthy. Drink 2021–2040.
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Wine Spectator
An elegant red, with currant and strawberry flavors showing restraint, accented by loam and toasted herb notes. Shows off sage, rosemary and mineral details. A spicy tobacco hint lingers. The tannins are firm but never get in the way of expression. Drink now through 2033.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Sourced from Coonawarra, Yalumba's 2014 The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon boasts appealing aromas of mint, cedar, cassis and dark chocolate. In the mouth, it's medium to full-bodied and sturdily built, with a linear palate buttressed by firm wood and grape tannins. Built for fatty meats and/or time in the cellar, this six-year-old wine still comes across as youthful and not-quite-ready to drink.
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Established in 1849, Yalumba is Australia’s most historic family-owned wine company showcasing the best of the Barossa and South Australian wine regions. Fiercely independent and extremely progressive through the generational ownership by the Hill-Smith family, their longevity and success are a result of patience, collaboration, and forward-thinking. Yalumba is a leader in the industry with the foresight to embrace the natural terroir to craft wines with individual character and a sense of purpose, as well as a spirit to reinvest in the land upon which it operates. Yalumba is committed to sharing stories of provenance gathered over 175 years of history of family winemaking.
Arguably the single most famous wine region in Australia, the Barossa includes both Barossa Valley and Eden Valley, making it one of the only areas in Australia to have neighboring warm and cool climate growing conditions. Yalumba is privileged to have access to some of the oldest vineyards in the world in Barossa Valley, including 1889 bush vine Grenache and 1908 Shiraz. They are committed to growing premium quality fruit reflecting distinctive varietal characters of the region.
Yalumba also operates the Southern Hemisphere's only fully operational Cooperage, crafting bespoke oak barrels that elevate the wines aged within them. While the beginnings of the Yalumba Cooperage remain a mystery lost in time, coopering has been a proud tradition at the winery for more than a century. Their coopers have been performing and perfecting their craft since around 1890. In the Nursery, Yalumba is a global leader in wine innovation, growing, evaluating, and supplying quality grape vines to the Australian wine industry. Yalumba has developed strong relationships with leading grapevine programs from around the world and have exclusive access to certain new varietals in Australia. This gives the Yalumba viticulturists and winemakers the unique opportunity to evaluate and develop new or emerging varieties before they are sold.
Yalumba continually strives to reduce their impact on the environment, stay involved in the community, and make great wine with minimal intervention in the vineyard and in the winery. They are committed to sustainable practices, with the belief that the healthier and more biodiverse the vineyards are, the better the wines will be. Yalumba has been developing its own sustainable viticulture program since the mid-1990s, promoting the economic production of quality grapes. For every acre of vineyard Yalumba own, they have at least one acre of native vegetation. All Yalumba wines are crafted with wild yeast, are 100% vegan, and are made with the least intervention possible but with as much knowledge, confidence, and expertise as possible.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Distinguished by a thin, subterranean band of crumbled, red clay loam, Coonawarra is a fairly flat, otherwise unobtrusive region with a cool Mediterranean climate, actually not dissimilar to Bordeaux.
In Coonawarra, this unique layer of red clay is called, "terra rossa" and gets its color from iron oxide. The terra rossa soil overlies soft, penetrable limestone, in a continuous area that is part of the Limestone Coast zone of South Australia. This uncommon layering of soils creates a substrate that is both well draining and at the same time, offers good water retention to support vine roots through dry summers.
Not surprisingly, Coonawara experiences great success with the Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but also Shiraz. However Cabernet reigns superior and accounts for half of the Coonawarra harvest each year. Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon develops powerful, yet polished tannins, ripe, red berry fruit and often sweet herb or dried mint qualities. The region has an increased focus on the individual expressions of single vineyards.