Yarra Yering is one of the oldest and most beautiful vineyards in Victoria’s Yarra Valley with 28 hectares of vines located at the foot of the Warramate Hills. Established in 1969 by Dr Bailey Carrodus, the 1973 vintage saw the production of the first vintage of Dry Red Wine No. 1 and Dry Red Wine No. 2. Yarra Yering quickly gained an international reputation for quality and individuality and paved the way for other Yarra Valley wineries.
The first plantings at Yarra Yering into block No.1 were these Cabernet vines and the name was born. The Malbec was also part of the original 1969 plantings. Some Merlot vines are interplanted with the Cabernet with subsequent plantings made in 1990 on the newly acquired neighbouring land. Petit Verdot is now only grown on the hillside of the new territories. All hand harvested and sent across a sorting table, only the very best berries go into this wine. The Cabernet fruit is individually berry sorted before being crushed to build structure through fermentation. Merlot, Malbec, and Petit Verdot are whole berry ferments for fragrance and palate flesh. All fermented in half-tonne fermenters and hand plunged twice daily, some of the Cabernet spending extended time on skins for complexity. Components are kept separate in French oak barrels, only 40% of them are new until being blended just before bottling after 15 months of barrel maturation.
Dry Red No 1 is Yarra Yering's Cabernet blend, or as the winery describes it, "a classic claret style". This 2019 Yarra Yering Dry Red No 1 is compromised of a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (67%), Merlot (15%), Malbec (12%), and Petit Verdot (6%).
Always one of the most sought-after premium wine releases of the year, the 2019 Yarra Yering Dry Red No. 1 has been even more highly anticipated than usual. Named 'Wine Of The Year' in the 2022 Halliday Wine Companion, Yarra Yering was also declared 'Winery Of The Year'.