Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz

the British Empire, established family wineries continued to make and improve their dry red wines for a small but sophisticated market in Australia and a revitalised post World War I market in the UK. Yalumba continued to produce reference clarets, primarily based on shiraz and 19 th century-planted and turn-of-the-century vineyards during the 1920s and 1930s. When fourth-generation Wyndham Hill-Smith took over the winery in 1938, Yalumba expanded its vineyards and invested more in the Australian market. The release of 1942 Special Reserve Galway Claret began the modern era of fine red winemaking at Yalumba. Under the legendary winemaker Rudi Kronberger, this series of vintages established a formidable reputation among wine connoisseurs. Based on cabernet sauvignon and shiraz, these limited release, fresh, modern claret styles were aged in oak puncheons for two years prior to release. They also inspired the age-worthy Yalumba Signature Series Cabernet Shiraz, which has become a hallmark of Yalumba’s fine wine portfolio. But production of dry table wine remained a speciality. Throughout the immediate post war years, fortified wines dominated the market, but the termination of the Export Bounty Scheme in 1947 foreshadowed a gradual decline in fortified wine production. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Yalumba became a symbol of innovation and progress. Almost every aspect of winemaking and vineyard management was fine- tuned. In 1953, the new managing director, Mark Hill-Smith, undertook a world tour to review winemaking technologies and opportunities for Yalumba. This sparked new investments in refrigeration and pressure fermentation, investment in small oak, and the development of table wines. Yalumba, like Penfolds, adopted these technological advances to establish reference wines of the times. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Yalumba released important claret style wines based on 19 th and early 20 th century vineyards. The 1962 Yalumba Signature Cabernet Shiraz began a family tradition that highlights a longstanding collaborative culture and commitment to the framework of multi-vineyard sourcing from Yalumba’s estate vineyards and independent growers. Yalumba believes that a selection of grand cru parcels from various locations around the Barossa can lead to beautifully balanced classic wines. But by the late 1980s, Robert Hill-Smith and his director of winemaking, Brian