Opaque core leading into a deep purple rim. Blackberry, tobacco leaf, graphite and violets leap from the glass. Wonderful density of black and blue fruits creates a base upon which layers of savoury complexity are built. Graphite and tobacco leaf sit at the fore, then notes of cedar and anise shine through. Wrapped in firm but well integrated tannins that provide ample tension and drive, ensuring a long finish that is focused and precise. Many years ahead of this wine.

We might be yet to learn who is to be honoured with the 2023 Signature, but whomsoever it is should be well pleased. This is a cracking release, one of their best. An opaque centre with a dark maroon rim, there is still vanillin oak evident on the nose, but it is integrating well. The aromas include notes of dried herbs, black fruits, graphite, licorice, mocha, chocolate, plums and cassis. This is balanced, youthful, offering real persistence and coiled power. The palate sees the move to gorgeous chocolate notes. A wine with serious length, there is much to love here.

This is a particularly good example of why cabernet and shiraz go so well together. Apart from structure and flesh, the combination of dark and red berry flavours, fruit sweetness and leafy herb notes, are just so complementary. This wine is the perfect exhibit: the fruit is fresh and flavoursome at once, not to mention of noteworthy purity. There’s cedarwood oak here too, but its integration is entire, and it has latched on to nuances of tobacco. Yalumba’s Signature pretty much never misses, and this release certainly hasn’t. Fruit, tannin, length and all-round harmony; all are in top nick.

This is the darkest Lord in the Dynasty of The Signature. It glares at you from the glass, challenging you to approach, inch by inch and dare to take a sip. And it is not easy. It requires commitment and a fair slug of bravery. You must punch into this wine, like a cliff-diver, because that’s the level of fearlessness needed, and when you do, you will plunge into an extraordinarily indulgent abyss of flesh and fruit. Once you take the challenge by the horns, it is sheer hedonism: cavorting fruit, spectacular oak backing singers, swaying rhythmically, hand-clapping this band as it advances on the crowd and swallows up their desires in one fell swoop. This is not a regular Sig, per se, but a swelling riff on the eternal Yalumba love affair with Cabernet and Shiraz!