Just for the heck of it, we recently decided to open a bottle of Yangarra’s 2018 Ironheart Shiraz a year or so after its release.
The 1.8Ha Ironheart vineyard is set high in McLaren Vale, and consists of sandy ironstone soil, and in these exposed almost arid conditions, wines of great concentration and finesse are made. The 2018 vintage is an excellent one, albeit warm and very dry. On first impression, the fruit is very ripe and sweet, allied to great natural acidity, proof indeed of the age old maxim that good wine must only come from very ripe grapes. Fathoms deep and concentrated, funnel like in shape, so that the expansive palate has incredible line and focus and everything that comes, comes from this very deep centre.
If Barossa Valley can be boozy, Eden Valley leafy, then McLaren Vale is often raw and clunky. Integration of fruit, oak, tannin and acidity can often be all over the place, oak in particular not integrating as well as you would find in the Barossa. Well, after all that, the Ironheart is one of the most perfectly balanced and integrated wines I have tasted, yet it has lost nothing of its McLaren Vale flair and flavour. Mouthcoating, really every corner of the palate is drenched in flavours of cassis, blueberry, violets, dark cherry, clove, milk chocolate, boysenberry, raspberry, plum and pepper spice. Oak is structurally important – paradoxically buffing the palate, whilst providing tannic direction.
Australian wines are becoming better textured. For regional classics like the Ironheart, the textural profile is beautifully interwoven with fruit. In other words, tannins aren’t stuck on at the end of the palate, but present along the entire expanse. Plush and voluminous, the palate is pure and translucent with a gliding, silken texture. The carry is extraordinarily long, but I love the lick of firmness, the slick tannins fading to a powdery grip. It’s as if we are being reminded that for all its silken refinement, we are not to forget that this is a McLaren Vale shiraz. Power is part of its DNA.
Poise, purity and and an ethereal air are not usually attributes associated with McLaren Vale shiraz and I was stunned to drink a wine that tastes of quintessential McLaren Vale, notwithstanding a level of refinement and confidence I would usually associate with Burgundy or Bordeaux. I generally prefer Barossa to McLaren Vale, having had numerously more better wines from the former, but opinions are anchored by grand examples and the Ironheart is as grand as they come. Is this the beginning of a change of heart?
Quite possibly, this is the finest shiraz I have tasted from a region that doesn’t normally thrill me. Utterly flawless, gorgeously fruited, sumptuous, balanced, of place and delicately structured yet immensely powerful. With the Ironheart, there is not a hair out of place.
Grand authoritative wines demand some attention. At $110 a bottle, it’s not cheap, but then it is. There are three compelling reasons to purchase. Firstly there is not a finer shiraz to come out of McLaren Vale. Secondly, compared to the obscene prices of most Barossa and Eden Valley icons, the Ironheart is remarkable value for money. And thirdly, as an exercise in beauty. To know that beauty is not only the exclusive preserve of Europe, that on an isolated, windswept, sparse, near-desert corner of Australia, Yangarra is crafting purple gold.
Yangarra Ironheart Shiraz 2018
