Skip to content
Buy any 6 bottles and save 5%. Buy any 12 bottles and save 10% (excludes wines on offer). Free UK delivery on orders over £100. Tel: 02922 337454
Buy any 6 bottles and save 5%. Buy any 12 bottles and save 10% (excludes wines on offer). Free UK delivery on orders over £100. Tel: 02922 337454
2012 'The Caley' Cabernet & Shiraz, Yalumba Wine Republic

2012 'The Caley' Cabernet & Shiraz, Yalumba

Barossa Valley and Coonawarra, Australia

The Pioneer’s Legacy

Majestic yet beautifully measured, the inaugural vintage of The Caley brings together Cabernet’s aristocratic poise and Shiraz’s generous depth. Blackcurrant, blackberry and dark cherry form a concentrated heart, lifted by violet, savoury herbs and a subtle leafy freshness. Cedar, pipe tobacco and fragrant baking spices unfold around the fruit, while hints of graphite, liquorice and gently smoky oak lend complexity. It is a wine that reveals itself gradually, rewarding time in the glass with an increasingly intricate bouquet.

The palate is full-bodied and richly textured, its dark fruit carried by polished tannins and a firm thread of acidity. There is impressive concentration, but the lasting impression is one of control: supple fruit, finely judged oak and a long, savoury finish moving together with remarkable ease. Bottle age has begun to reveal its more mellow dimensions, while the structure promises further development with careful cellaring. For the collector, this first release offers the pleasure of owning the opening chapter of Yalumba’s most ambitious wine.

For when: A milestone deserves a bottle with a story as compelling as the wine inside.

Pairs with: Beef Wellington with mushroom duxelles, roast rib of beef, rosemary-crusted lamb rack, venison loin with juniper jus, slow-roasted veal, or aged Cheddar.

The Caley honours Fred Caley Smith, grandson of Yalumba founder Samuel Smith. In 1893, the young horticulturist began an 18-month journey through America, Britain, Europe and Asia, recording scientific and agricultural discoveries in detailed letters home. His observations helped shape Yalumba’s vineyard management and its enduring respect for the land. Released in 2017, the inaugural 2012 vintage celebrates that spirit of curiosity through an exceptional expression of the great Australian Cabernet–Shiraz blend.

The 2012 growing season provided an auspicious beginning. Good reserves of soil moisture following the preceding wet year supported healthy vines, while mild ripening conditions encouraged depth of flavour without sacrificing freshness. The resulting combination of concentration, aromatic detail and structure gave Yalumba the foundations for a flagship designed to develop over many years.

Whats in the bottle
52% Coonawarra Cabernet, 27% Barossa Cabernet, 21% Barossa Shiraz.

Notable Awards
98 points, James Halliday 98 points, James Suckling

£224.00 - £224.00
£224.00
£224.00 - £224.00
£224.00
Make it a giftOptional gift bags and wooden boxes Choose +

Choose your packaging, then carry on shopping.

Choose your packaging
Availability:
in stock, ready to be shipped

Based in the tiny village of Angaston in South Australia, Yalumba is the country’s oldest family-owned winery. Samuel Smith left his home in Dorset and sailed to Adelaide, where he settled and planted his first vines in 1849. Expanding his holdings after finding fortune in the goldfields of New South Wales and Victoria, he released his first wines in the 1850s and began to pick up accolades in local wine shows.
Samuel’s grandson, the horticulturist Fred Caley Smith, set sail seeking adventures in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, all the time promoting Yalumba wines. He returned with an almost unrivalled knowledge that set his family on a trajectory to become one of Australia’s leading wine producers and fruit growers. The winery has passed through five generations of Smiths and now resides with Chairman of the Board Robert Hill-Smith (cousin of Michael Hill Smith MW of Shaw+Smith), who takes inspiration from Antinori, Dujac, Faiveley, Pol Roger and many more. He sums up the ethos of Yalumba when he says: “it’s about sustaining excellence and having some fun.”
Boasting the phenomenal talents of winemaker Louisa Rose, its own onsite cooperage and holdings in Barossa, Eden Valley, Coonawarra, Wrattonbully and all over South Australia, Yalumba is a five-star winery according to James Halliday and has “always been a serious player”. Robert Parker concurs saying that this “renowned Barossa icon” offers “high quality from the bottom to the top of the product line”, and writing for Jancis Robinson’s Purple Pages Richard Hemming MW notes that their “wines are built to last.”

The Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz parcels were fermented separately in open fermenters. Indigenous or ‘wild’ yeasts, naturally present on the grape skins, initiated the fermentation to contribute complexity, richness and fine texture. Cultured winery yeasts were then added to complete fermentation. Gentle plunging and pulsing of the skins were undertaken to achieve the right balance of colour, tannin and phenolic extraction. The Caley was matured for 22 months in a mix of 31% new French barriques and hogsheads, 22% one-year-old French barriques and the balance in older French barriques and hogsheads. The barrels were all made and seasoned at the Yalumba Cooperage. After bottling, the wine was cellared for a further 36 months and released in 2017.

Wine-Searcher Retailer Awards 2026/27 Gold, Overall List in Cardiff