2022 Yarra Yering Dry Red No.2

2025 Best Shiraz of the Year - Halliday Wine Companion

Yarra Yering remains one of Australia’s most revered wineries, seamlessly blending tradition with modern excellence. Under the guidance of winemaker Sarah Crowe, the estate continues to craft elegant, age-worthy wines that showcase the finesse of the Yarra Valley.

Dry Red No. 2 is comprised of 96% Shiraz, 2% Marsanne, 1.5% Mataro, and 0.5% Viognier. Fermented with whole berries and some whole bunches, with frozen Viognier skins and Marsanne bunches added to select fermenters. Maturation lasts 15 months in French oak, 25% of which were new. This 2022 release was awarded Best Shiraz of the Year in the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion.

Other Reviews....
A blend of 96/1/2/1 per cent shiraz/viognier/marsanne/mataro. Fermented with whole berries and matured in barriques (25 per cent new). A brilliant crimson red. In fact, a brilliant Dry Red Wine No. 2. There's a little reduction when first poured but it doesn't take long for this to reveal a complex amalgam of red and black fruits, iodine, graphite and melted, dark licorice. Fleshier and more refined and seductive than last year's version. Incredibly svelte tannins. Supremely balanced. I reckon Yarra Yering's founder, Dr Bailey Carrodus, would be chuffed with this. Drink 2024-2034.
99 points
Philip Rich - James Halliday's Wine Companion

The vines date back to 1969, though there were also plantings in the 1980s and 1990s. It’s a blend of 96% Shiraz, 2% Marsanne, 1.5% Mataro and 0.5% Viognier. I’m going to pull the winemaking specs direct from the Yarra Yering website, because they’re interesting. “Fruit was hand-picked, transferred across a sorting table and destemmed directly to the Yarra Yering half-tonne open-fermenters. As much whole berry as possible is retained to encourage perfume. A small portion of fermenters had frozen Viognier skins; tiny yields this year, added to the bottom. A few more enjoy the inclusion of Marsanne bunches. The wine was aged for 15 months in French oak barriques, 25% new.”
This wine takes cool and warm climate shiraz styles and straddles them perfectly. It’s a wine that will please shiraz lovers far and wide. It’s spicy, peppery and fractionally reductive but then it’s also a swoon of cherry plum, peppercorn and red licorice fruit flavour. Some rivers are bright and fast; others are deep and slow. This wine is both. Logs of cedarwood are dipped, deftly, into the flow, in support, in complement. It has to be said that the balance, here, is masterful. Drink 2025 - 2035+.
95 points
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front