2021 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

Imagine a wicker basket full to the brim of blackberries, mulberries and Illawarra plums. A stalk of rosemary, thyme and a few gumnuts clinging to the stem. It’s dusk and the smell of paperbark with a crackling fire are near. The 2021 Reserve Cabernet is an illustration of the great Australian landscape, so invoking it is almost unnerving. The fruit is densely concentrated and backed by silty tannins that evenly grip the palate. There is a pantry of baking spices, cumin, nutmeg and cassia bark and a wonderful dry tanned leather and cedar flavour to the well used French oak. This is Yarra Valley Cabernet with the intensity dialled up and built to last a lifetime. Utterly stunning. Drink with juicy
lamb chops, roast potatoes and greens.

When the stars align and the vintage is good, Cabernet Sauvignon shines in the Yarra. This was one of those years with a wine of rare brilliance. Yarra Cabernets display such refined elegance from the perfumed aromas through to the finely structured palate. But there is power and it is here in abundance. The red berry and black fruit combination with a spicy oak infusion is immediately engaging on the nose. There the core of fine minerally tannin and neat oak combine to bring this baby home. Exceptional wine.

98/2% cabernet sauvignon/merlot matured in 225L French barriques (17% new) for 15 months. A bright, medium crimson red. An impressive bouquet with dark cherry, blackcurrant, pencil box and violet scents. Impeccably balanced, this medium- to full-bodied and elegant wine has a good depth of fruit and excellent structure. The tannins are fine, gently chewy and persistent, and this will continue to evolve and become more complex over the next decade or so.

A dollop of Merlot (2.5%) is included in this superb Yarra Cab, with ten months in 228 litre French oak barriques, 20% new. For anyone who has forgotten how good Yarra Cabernet can be, or never experienced it in the first place, don’t miss this. Dark magenta hue, the nose offers bay leaves, cassis, spices, chocolate, aniseed, black fruits and tobacco leaves. Fine tannins, impressive length and serious persistence, with graphite and blackberries emerging on the palate. This has a great future, at least ten to fifteen years.

Deep, bright red-purple colour; the bouquet is classic cabernet, with ripe berry/cassis melded to cedary oak and the palate reflects those impressions. It's clean, ripe and varietal, intense and nicely concentrated, the tannins firm and classically cabernet but not astringent or green. A lovely young cabernet that will certainly reward cellaring. Sumptuous, and very stylish

The well-composed 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve offers up punchy aromas of violets and cassis, with clay tones. Dry, midweight and shapely, a deep well of structural tannins provides impressive definition to the long, savory finish, retaining that composure throughout.

A solid, compact, medium-bodied and highly savory expression. Redcurrants, cassis, strewn garden herbs, mulch and olives, smeared across the sappy, finely appointed cedar edges that compress the gently leafy finish. A good luncheon claret sort of wine. Screw cap. Drink or hold.