Yalumba

Rare & Fine The Octavius

Syrah/Shiraz & Syrah/Shiraz-based Blends

Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz bottle image

Syrah/Shiraz & Syrah/Shiraz-based Blends

Signifying Yalumba’s commitment to Barossa Shiraz, this is a truly individual wine, handcrafted, handmade and matured in fine French oak and Yalumba coopered American octave barrels. These unique barrels, which offered inspiration for the wine’s name, are just one of the many harmonious components in the symphony that is Yalumba The Octavius Shiraz.

All Products →

Wine Production

The growing season began with consistent rainfall
throughout winter. Spring remained warmer and drier
than average and although bunch and berry size was
reduced the vines were off to a healthy start. The reduced
berry and crop size has produced grapes of great aromatics
and flavour. A long and relatively mild summer with quite
cool nights helped to retain acidity and pristine fruit
flavours in the Shiraz. Matured for 22 Months in 21% new French and American oak Octaves, balance in older French Barriques, Hogsheads and American Octaves.

Tasting Notes

A very deep red in colour. Vibrant aromas of dark cherries,
aniseed and licorice, distinctive and seductive with exotic
spices and espresso coffee. The dark berry fruit palate is rich
and powerful, yet gently evolving, with a classy restrained
elegance, displaying silky raspberry, damson plum and
sweet blackberry fruits. A wonderfully balanced wine
with beautiful tannins.

Food Pairing

Double decant and enjoy alongside a classic steak and kidney pie or lentil, sweet potato and chickpea stew.

All Products →

Wine Production

Tasting Notes

Food Pairing

Double decant and enjoy alongside a classic steak and kidney pie or lentil, sweet potato and chickpea stew.

Brand Materials

Tech Sheet Bottle Shot Acclaim

POINTS

We are indeed lucky to get these museum releases from Yalumba and this one is singing with creamy-edged blackberry, plum and black cherry fruits in fine form. Hints of mixed spice, roast meats, leather, tobacco, gentle cedar and earth. The wine is showing its worth with a beautiful, graceful fruit weight and flow on the palate. The oak has reclined back into the fruit and it's looking glorious. Lovely.

James Halliday

POINTS

This is where the more tempered selection of oak usage in The Octavius starts to show its successful transition to best effect. Matured for 22 months in 21% new eight-stave octave barrels made from French and American oak, with the remainder in older French barrels, this regime provides more breathing space for the perfume to rise higher, with pretty violets adding an accent to ripe black and blue berries. The combination of more aromatic Eden Valley Shiraz with the sculpted muscle of Barossa fruit shows bright primary notes of blackberry and redcurrant that are just beginning to reveal savory development after a decade in the cellar. There’s also lively spice roiling with the fruit in a back-palate wrestle that leaves the flavor profile intriguing to the end.

POINTS

This 2015 Shiraz The Octavius is a blend of 61% Eden Valley and 39% Barossa Valley fruit. It offers a composed expression, with intensely ripe fruit notes of mulberry and dark cherry that dive into savory, dark, earthy tones. Explosive flavors jump out of the blocks, with acid, tannin and fruit in a punchy, muscular package through the sustained finish. The 2015 is very serious. Built for the long haul and just coming into its own.

POINTS

"Opaque ruby. An expansive bouquet evokes dark berry preserves, incense, vanilla and cola, with a smoky mineral nuance building as the wine opens up. Juicy, seamless and alluringly sweet, offering densely packed yet lively blueberry, cherry-cola and violet pastille flavors and a suggestion of spicecake. This palate-staining wine comes off as vibrant despite its heft and velvety tannins add shape and grip to the impressively long finish."

POINTS

“This vintage of one of Yalumba’s most premium wines is back up to the level of the 2013. It’s a rich and heady combo of dark chocolate, brambly berries, licorice and earthy herbs. Tannins are integrated neatly within a silky texture of pure, tangy fruit and vibrant acidity. It’s so likable now, it may not age as long as other Shiraz in this price point, but should still progress well for another decade or so.”

POINTS

“Made in a deliberately oaky style, with the vanilla and wood tannins an integral part of the experience, Yalumba's 2015 The Octavius has the potent mulberry fruit to support those oaky overtones. Scents of cedar, vanilla, menthol and mocha join dark berries on the nose, while the full-bodied palate is pliant yet structured. Imagine how a barrel contains liquid? That's the impression The Octavius makes on the palate, its fruit power and breadth contained by wood, channeled into a long, velvety finish.”

POINTS

“A very composed Octavius with rich blackberries and dark plums, framed in tarry, earthy and gently spicy complexity. The palate delivers a very fluid and long impression with a wealth of ripe, smooth tannin that holds the long finish.”

James Suckling

POINTS

“Dense, toothsome huckleberry and blackberry flavors show touches of Earl Grey tea, black licorice and sandalwood, adding distinctive spiciness. Savory details of saline and dried herb linger, as do the tannins, which firm up on the finish.”

17.5 out of 20

“Deep crimson. Leathery, fresh and lively – even racy, quite a feat on the part of winemaker Kevin Glastonbury.”

Jancis Robinson

“Deep ruby-black. Elegantly integral chocolate, vanilla and liquorice lift that fits perfectly with the baked black fruit. Complex. Baked, raspberry and blackberry fruit intensity on the palate with black pepper and mint. Firm tannins and great length.” (17.5+ points out of 20)

Jancis Robinson

Vineyard & Production Info

Vineyard name:

Multiple Vineyards

Soil composition:

Barossa Vineyards

Elevation:

300-1,500 feet

Average Vine Age:

100 years

Certifying Organizations:

ISO14001; Entwine Australia

Sustainability Certification:

EPA Acredited Sustainability Licence

Winemaking & Aging

Prefermentation Technique:

1-3 days on skins pre fermentation before wild yeast start to ferment

Varietal composition:

100% Shiraz

Fermentation container:

Stainless steel tanks

Malolactic fermentation:

Yes

Fining agent:

Vegan

Type of aging container:

Octaves, Barriques and Hogsheads

Type of oak:

French and American

Length of aging before bottling:

22 months

Age of Aging Container:

20 months

Analytical Data

pH level:

3.5

Acidity:

6.5 g/L

Alcohol:

14 %

Residual sugar:

0.5 g/L

About the Vineyard

Sourced 61% from Eden Valley and 39% from Barossa Valley with an average vine age of 100 years. The Eden Valley Shiraz provides the exotic aromatics and seamless palate structure, while the Barossa Valley Shiraz provides richness, density and concentration.

See Brand →