A yin and yang of opulence and restraint: 15 vintages of Yangarra High Sands

The late, legendary viticulturist Bernard Smart was barely a teenager when he helped his dad Frederick plant the first vines in what is now Yangarra Estate’s prized High Sands vineyard in 1946. 

A lot has changed since then. The value of grenache, for one. Its purpose, too – most of the grenache in South Australia was originally intended for fortified wines. And although it’s a variety that has always been capable of making great table wine, it’s only within the past two decades that anyone in Australia has attempted to do so. 

Yangarra winemaker Peter Fraser is among the cohort of McLaren Vale producers spearheading the country’s grenache revolution. He makes several, including the Ovitelli and the Old Vine Grenache from estate vineyards in Blewitt Springs, and the Hickinbotham Clarendon Grenache. The High Sands Grenache, which comes from a 1.7ha block of gnarly old bush vines planted on the deepest sands at the highest elevation on the estate, is his flagship.

Sandy soils from the High Sands vineyard in Blewitt Springs.

The first High Sands was (officially) made in 2005, although the 15-vintage tasting Pete is hosting for an intimate group of wine media spans 2010 to 2024. “2010 was when we built the winery, which I feel was our coming of age as we finally had the kit to be able to do everything I’d wanted to do but hadn’t been able to until then,” Pete says. 

Stylistically, those early wines were also “bigger, more earthy, all about flavour ripeness... wines of their era,” he adds. While comparing them would have been an interesting exercise, the wine’s evolution and progression in finesse, elegance and fragrance is clear from what’s in front of us. 

While the wines are all stamped with the characteristic savouriness of the High Sands site, different growing conditions have led to noticeable variation between vintages. There’s a gentleness, fragrance and beauty to 2011, ’17 and ’23 as a result of the cooler season, for example, whereas ’15, ’19 and ’22, which were warm, low-cropping years, “have an electricity to them.” 

Ceramic eggs were introduced from 2019 onwards.

There’s also variation due to differing winemaking techniques. The wines up until 2018 were aged in smaller oak barrels on lees, and ceramic and sandstone eggs and other vessels were introduced from 2019 onwards. And there’s a distinctive brightness to the ’24 – the first to incorporate 100 per cent whole bunch. 

“For me, great wines are medium bodied and have incredible length and presence of flavour, but are still restrained, with a compelling and intriguing structure. A yin and yang of opulence and restraint,” Pete says. 

“That’s been the core goal with High Sands as we’ve worked along.”

Find the original tasting notes for each vintage below. Please note 2022 and 2024 are not yet released.

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