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  • Country ranking ?

    43
  • Producer ranking ?

    2
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Lamb

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Vintage 2018

AUSTRALIA: Very promising quality with the most optimistic reviewers declaring 2018 great in every region and for every variety. The more cautious view is that early frosts reduced yields, but that consistent good weather throughout the second half of the growing season actually resulted in great potential.

Barossa 2018 vintage to savor

The 2018 Barossa vintage was completed at the end of April 2018, with growers and winemakers satisfied...

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

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Written Notes

Back to the well for the Cabernet, as it were. Sourced again from the ancient vines in the Eden Valley vineyard, even though yields stubbornly refuse to exceed one tonne/acre. The blend is 92 percent Cabernet and eight percent Shiraz. Fermented separately for eight days on skins in small open stainless steel fermenters with twice daily pump overs, the Cabernet component was then aged in French oak hogsheads (50 percent new, 50 percent third use) for 18 months.

Near black with intensely dark purples. There are floral notes, rose petals, cocoa powder, and purple fruits here. Mulberries, a whiff of dried raisins, bay leaves, rolled tobacco notes, spices, cassis, leather, and blackberries. As one moves to the palate, the leather, mocha, and coffee bean notes emerge more to the fore, and the chocolate, especially dark chocolate, gains in intensity.

Serious concentration here, this is glorious stuff. Great length, balance, freshness, and complexity. Returning to it the following day, everything was still perfectly in place, though the firm tannins had become a bit more apparent at this stage. This is a wine that has two decades of improving ahead of it. After that, it should plateau for many more.

For me, while the Eligo offers a similar timespan, I’d be more inclined to approach it at an earlier stage than this wine. This one really will benefit from time. No question that this sits very comfortably with those Cabernet-dominant Special Bins from Penfolds that originally inspired John, although at a fraction of the price. Small quantities exported to the U.S., UK, and Hong Kong. 98.

  • 98p
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Information

Origin

Tanunda, Barossa Valley
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