Another wine from the cellar, this time a Coonawarra Cabernet from a vintage perhaps somewhat overshadowed by its immediate predecessor.
A lovely colour that still shows flashes of purple in amongst its ruby clarity. On the nose, one’s first impression is that of sweet silage, backed by clean blackcurrant fruit. It’s a lovely nose and shows a nice mix of tertiary notes alongside a substantial chunk of fruited youth. There’s also a good dose of vanilla and spice oak, which accompanies the other flavours well and strikes me as assertive without being unbalanced.
The palate is just lovely. A clean, mellow mouthfeel registers immediately on entry, and ushers in a range of flavours on the mid-palate. Here, more clean blackcurrant fruit sits alongside sweetly decaying foliage, some mint and another whack of oak. It’s medium bodied, really quite intense, and complex enough to keep my brow wrinkled with each sip. As a youngster, I’d say this would have been on the fuller side, yet its structure is still firm enough to give the palate shape and flow. As the wine moves through the after palate, flavour flows quite linearly over the tongue. Grainy tannins also emerge, still quite drying and tea-like, and carry the wine to a persistent finish. It’s one of those wines that seems to settle on the tongue like a blanket and sit there most happily. The sweet leather of bottle age is most evident towards the finish.
I’m really enjoying this one for its complexity and generosity. Lovers of aged flavours will want to leave it for a few more years to allow further flowering, but it’s also a nice wine right now, with its mixture of young and old.
Price: $A35
Closure: Cork
Date tasted: July 2008
Julian,
I’ve got a few of these tucked away for a rainy day. I recall having on release and being very impressed. I think your brow wrinkling comment is spot on.
It was a fuller wine as a youngster too. And a good Katnook.
GW
Edward, I’m jealous. This was my only bottle and, as much as I enjoyed it, I’m now curious to see it in a few years’ time. I hope you enjoy yours!
GW, thanks for that insight — I didn’t have the opportunity to taste this wine on release so it’s interesting to connect this tasting to its style as a young wine. I do like a firmly structured Coonawarra Cabernet, and don’t mind some accompanying leanness, but this style is certainly a flavoursome change.