Region: McLaren Vale
Sub Region: Blewitt Springs
Variety: Grenache
Country: Australia
Vintage: 2024
The Wine
High Sands is Yangarra’s icon wine and one of the benchmark expressions of Grenache in Australia. It comes exclusively from Block 31, just 1.7 hectares of dry-grown bush vines planted in 1946 at the highest point of Yangarra’s Blewitt Springs estate. At approximately 210 metres elevation, this parcel also carries the deepest sandy soils on the property, with the old vines sending their roots deep into the weathered sands in search of moisture.
The combination of vine age, deep sand and elevation is fundamental to the wine. These remarkably old Grenache vines naturally produce small crops with an unusual balance of concentration and fragrance. High Sands has the depth expected of a flagship wine, but its defining quality has increasingly become finesse: intensely perfumed red fruit, spice and florals wrapped around fine, mineral-feeling tannins rather than sheer mass.
The 2024 marks an important evolution. For the first time, Yangarra introduced a dedicated whole-bunch component. Approximately 15% of the final blend was fermented as 100% whole bunches, while the remainder was destemmed with around half the berries left intact. Wild fermentation took place in ceramic egg and small open-top stainless-steel fermenters, followed by a long, gentle maceration of at least 30 days, with some parcels remaining on skins for approximately 45 days after fermentation. No pressings were used.
Maturation took place on lees in older thick-staved Austrian puncheons and ceramic eggs before the final blend was returned predominantly to ceramic. The wine was bottled in February 2025 and, like the vineyard itself, is certified organic and biodynamic.
That small whole-bunch component appears to have added another dimension to an already extraordinary wine: more fragrance, greater lift and an almost seamless transition from perfume into texture. At 14% alcohol there is genuine concentration, but nothing feels heavy. This is Grenache built around old-vine authority, fine tannin and extraordinary persistence.
Cellared Says
High Sands has moved well beyond being simply one of Australia’s best Grenaches—it belongs in the conversation with the world’s great expressions of the variety. What makes it compelling isn’t brute concentration but the way these 1946 vines combine depth with perfume and incredibly sophisticated tannin. The 2024 may be one of the most complete releases yet, and with only 1.7 hectares behind it, genuine scarcity is built into the wine rather than manufactured around it.
Reviews
“This is an important evolution in the history of this great wine… This is an unbelievable wine.”
99 Points – Erin Larkin, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
“It’s another seamless wine, resounding echoes of place the key… so finely but commandingly structured, and with such a long time ahead of it.”
98+ Points – Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“Power and elegance combined. A very intense, top-level Grenache that will age superbly.”
98 Points – Huon Hooke, The Real Review
Region: McLaren Vale
Sub Region: Blewitt Springs
Variety: Grenache
Country: Australia
Vintage: 2024
The Wine
High Sands is Yangarra’s icon wine and one of the benchmark expressions of Grenache in Australia. It comes exclusively from Block 31, just 1.7 hectares of dry-grown bush vines planted in 1946 at the highest point of Yangarra’s Blewitt Springs estate. At approximately 210 metres elevation, this parcel also carries the deepest sandy soils on the property, with the old vines sending their roots deep into the weathered sands in search of moisture.
The combination of vine age, deep sand and elevation is fundamental to the wine. These remarkably old Grenache vines naturally produce small crops with an unusual balance of concentration and fragrance. High Sands has the depth expected of a flagship wine, but its defining quality has increasingly become finesse: intensely perfumed red fruit, spice and florals wrapped around fine, mineral-feeling tannins rather than sheer mass.
The 2024 marks an important evolution. For the first time, Yangarra introduced a dedicated whole-bunch component. Approximately 15% of the final blend was fermented as 100% whole bunches, while the remainder was destemmed with around half the berries left intact. Wild fermentation took place in ceramic egg and small open-top stainless-steel fermenters, followed by a long, gentle maceration of at least 30 days, with some parcels remaining on skins for approximately 45 days after fermentation. No pressings were used.
Maturation took place on lees in older thick-staved Austrian puncheons and ceramic eggs before the final blend was returned predominantly to ceramic. The wine was bottled in February 2025 and, like the vineyard itself, is certified organic and biodynamic.
That small whole-bunch component appears to have added another dimension to an already extraordinary wine: more fragrance, greater lift and an almost seamless transition from perfume into texture. At 14% alcohol there is genuine concentration, but nothing feels heavy. This is Grenache built around old-vine authority, fine tannin and extraordinary persistence.
Cellared Says
High Sands has moved well beyond being simply one of Australia’s best Grenaches—it belongs in the conversation with the world’s great expressions of the variety. What makes it compelling isn’t brute concentration but the way these 1946 vines combine depth with perfume and incredibly sophisticated tannin. The 2024 may be one of the most complete releases yet, and with only 1.7 hectares behind it, genuine scarcity is built into the wine rather than manufactured around it.
Reviews
“This is an important evolution in the history of this great wine… This is an unbelievable wine.”
99 Points – Erin Larkin, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
“It’s another seamless wine, resounding echoes of place the key… so finely but commandingly structured, and with such a long time ahead of it.”
98+ Points – Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion
“Power and elegance combined. A very intense, top-level Grenache that will age superbly.”
98 Points – Huon Hooke, The Real Review
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