Five generations and 167 years later Yalumba, Australia’s most historic family owned winery, has grown in size and stature, embodying all that has made the Australian wine success story the envy of winemakers the world over.

Located near the town of Angaston, South Australia in the Barossa Valley wine region. Yalumba was founded by a British brewer, Samuel Smith, who emigrated to Australia with his family from Wareham, Dorset in August 1847 aboard the ship ‘China’. Upon arriving in Australia in December, Smith built a small house on the banks of the River Torrens. He lived there less than a year before moving north to Angaston where he purchased a 30-acre (120,000 m2) block of land on the settlement’s south eastern boundary. He named his property “Yalumba” after an indigenous Australian word for “all the land around”. In 1849 Samuel Smith, along with his son Sidney, planted Yalumba’s first vineyards, beginning the Yalumba dynasty. Today Yalumba is Australia’s oldest family-owned winery.

Sustainability is nothing new to Yalumba it is simply a way of life. With more than 168 years of winemaking behind them, Yalumba understand the need to make the right choices for the environment, the local community and the wines. In the vineyard, Yalumba have a holistic approach to growing grapes. This is embodied in their Vitis Programme, which states a commitment to having minimal reliance on pesticides and maximum attention to environmental improvement.

The GSM blend is a stalwart of the Barossa. The three red varieties have been planted in the region for nearly 170 years and in the past were commonly blended to make fortified tawny port style wines. After World War II the same blend started to become popular in table wines. Grenache Shiraz Mataro is a bit of a mouthful hence the birth of the colloquial GSM.

Vinification

The three GSM varieties are picked separately for this wine and fermented in small batches some in oak vats and some in stainless steel. The subsequent wine is aged in a mixture of large oak vats, small oak vats, puncheons and smaller oak barrels, to allow it to develop without the influence of a lot of oak flavour but to increase in textures and complexity.

Tasting Notes

Deep garnet in colour, this is a wine of many layers. It shows licorice, blackberry and plum, supported by notes of sandalwood and white pepper. A robust palate, full of chocolate and juicy Satsuma plum with a gravely tannin finish.

This is a great accompaniment to BBQ T-bone and seasoned wedges.