Yalumba FDR1A 2018

Few Australian wine names carry a backstory quite this charming. In 1974, Yalumba released what would become one of its finest Cabernet-Shiraz blends ever, unceremoniously stamped with its bin code — FDR1A, for "Fine Dry Red 1A" — rather than any grander title. The small original bottling became a genuine legend in Australian winemaking circles, amassing three trophies and twenty-one gold medals at some of the country's most respected wine shows. Yalumba, Australia's oldest family-owned winery, founded in 1849 by Samuel Smith and still run by the Hill-Smith family today, recreated FDR1A in 2000, and by 2004 had given it a distinctive point of difference: 100% Eden Valley provenance, with the Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the Miles vineyard at Craneford and the Shiraz from Yalumba's own Short's Block on the southern edge of Angaston. As James Halliday once quipped, "If it were me, I'd call it 'ALC', or 'Aussie Luncheon Claret' — but I guess that's why I'm not in marketing."

It's exactly that: the quintessential Australian Cabernet-Shiraz blend, done with real class. Expect currants, savoury herbs, and lifted red raspberry on the nose, giving way to fine cedar and a touch of spice, with roasted plum, mushroom, and dried herb notes emerging with a little bottle age. The palate is medium-to-full-bodied, densely fruited yet beautifully poised, with well-integrated, melting tannins and a long, savoury, meaty finish. It's released with some cellar age already built in and happily continues to develop for decades under cork. Pour it with a proper barbecued steak, osso buco, or roast lamb — this is old-school Australian claret at its most reassuring, and a wine that's earned every bit of its cult status.