10 GREAT CABERNET

Of all the varieties that we lined up for the Wine Companion this year, cabernet sauvignon and its blends put forward more highlights than anything else besides the mighty shiraz itself. My top 10 are my personal list of favourites from the highlights put forward by the Tasting Team for our annual Awards judging, along with a few highlights from my recent tastings. Margaret River assumes a rightful lead, home to remarkably dignified wines of astonishing endurance, grossly undervalued and under recognised globally. The Yarra ranks second, where cabernet and not pinot is the true star. There is good argument to suggest that the distinguished cabernet grape is more important than any other in the world – on ageability, collectability, global repute, even investability. It’s the wine I personally love to leave in my cellar the longest, and I’m still enjoying some of the first wines I purchased when I started collecting in the mid-1990s. Opening 20-yearold cabernet under screwcap is a real treat – its ability to age consistently and reliably under this closure is a game changer!

2018 Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon

From 3 vineyards on terra rossa soil, average vine age 29yo. Optically sorted. The best of the best – a selection of less than 1% of all cabernet parcels. Open fermenters, on skins for average 24 days. Matured 15 months in French barriques and hogsheads (35% new, remainder 2–3yo), mlf in barrel. Tasting young John Riddoch simply throws a spotlight on its quality as the cornerstone, because this wine evolves into something special with age. It’s a majestic wine. Full bodied and deep, with an abundance of tannins, but all in place, with a brightness to the acidity. There’s nothing harsh here. Earthy flavours, cedary oak and excellent fruit make it a bit of a tease: it is rather easy to open a bottle to enjoy now, yet its best years are ahead of it. JF.

2019 Xanadu Reserve Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon

With 4/4% malbec/petit verdot. Sometimes, you gotta start at the end of a wine, rather than the front. Usually it is because the wine is so long, that the first flavours are long forgotten. Such is life, here. The tannins, which are laced like a fine silky web through the finish, capture the pure fruit on the mid palate and coax it through the mouth. Caught also, like fine droplets of dew in a spider’s web, are pockets of spice which add pop and thrill to the overall. Another scintillating and pure cabernet release from the team at Xanadu. EL.

2019 Grosset Gaia Clare Valley

Cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. 5000 bottles made. Elegant. This has grunt and low-down power, but the engine is built into a chassis of fine fruit and supple tannins. The acidity acts as the titanium bolt that holds it together, creating a strengthening framework of life and finesse. Blackberries, cassis, licorice, mulberry and raw cocoa, with nori, pink peppercorns and pastrami, blood plum, kelp and brine. Marvellous. EL.

2018 Howard Park Abercrombie Margaret River Mount Barker Cabernet Sauvignon

Fruit from the Leston vineyard in Margaret River, and the Abercrombie vineyard in Mount Barker. The 2018 vintage produced wines of untold ripeness and balance and elevated the flavour concentration in almost every variety. This is concentrated and dense. There is a herbal bay/sage component to this wine that creates elegance and interest, the length of flavour very good. Classical cabernet. Minty/menthol. EL.

2018 Blue Pyrenees Estate Richardson Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

The first among equals, the ‘18 Richardson Reserve Cabernet just pips its Reserve Shiraz sibling with its incredible level of concentration and total integration. It’s a seamless, impressive performance. Ripe, yet well composed in blackberries, briar, a sweet dry leafy thread and spice, notably dressed in vanillin oak. Layers of fine cabernet tannins roam the palate, elegant in shape and bringing with them a long, smooth, fresh finish. The late Colin Richardson would have been proud. JP.

2018 Cullen Diana Madeline Margaret River

The perfumed bouquet has already soaked up the 13 months in 50% new oak, the purity of the fruit in a cassis-redcurrant-blueberry spectrum. The small berries of a quasi-drought summer might have imposed awkward tannins, but the medium-bodied palate is so perfectly balanced it has a drinking span of 30 years and counting. JH.

2020 Yarra Yering Carrodus Cabernet Sauvignon Yarra Valley

From the 1969-planted cabernet from the southwest corner of the No 1 block. Destemmed and crushed into the 600kg

Yarra Yering fermenters, with some extended maceration before maturation in French barrels for 15 months (30% new). A deep crimson purple. An incredibly complex nose with its core of fresh blackcurrant and cherry as well as cassis, graphite, bay leaf, black olive and cedar from the perfectly handled and already integrated oak. Darkly fruited on the palate, this iron fist in a velvet glove textured and structured wine is worth every cent of its lofty asking price. PR.

2020 Bleasdale Vineyards

The Iron Duke Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon

Open fermented, left 8-12 days on skins, matured for 12 months in French puncheons (20% new). A best-of-the-best barrel selection. The bright colour is as it should be, the bouquet rimmed with the violets that are often talked about (not by me, until, that is, you come across a wine such as this). Notes of cedar and cassis are not far behind in their appeal. Then the glory of this magnificent wine’s palate takes total control of all the senses, the sheer intensity of the fruit making the finely tempered tannins and French oak applaud from the wings of the stage. JH.

2017 Brown Brothers Patricia Cabernet Sauvignon King Valley

Always a strength in the Patricia range, this cabernet style is effortless and all class. Quality of fruit is the star, with oak bringing a layer of nuance and complexity to a solid core of cassis and plum fruits with bracken, earth, violets, cassia bark and a dusting of powdery cocoa. Brings both cabernet leafiness and spiced-filled liveliness to the finish. A joy to drink. JP.

2020 Mount Mary Yarra Valley Quintet

A blend of 44/30/18/4/4% cabernet sauvignon/ merlot/cabernet franc/malbec/petit verdot. From a cool year, with the poor flowering reducing the crop of the Quintet varieties by around 50%, this is an essay in elegance and understatement. A medium, bright and translucent ruby red, this is beautifully perfumed with aromas of just-ripened blackcurrants, red cherries, rose petals and gentle cedar notes from the oak. The palate is exceptionally pure fruited and gently textured. The wine finishes with these incredibly silky, long tannins that are in perfect harmony with the fruit and acid. This majestic wine is gorgeous to drink even now but those that still have some in their cellar in 10–15 years (if not longer) will be grateful. PR.