A range of impressive Cabernets at a function this evening:
Taylors Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Fresh, bright and lively, a little industrial and coarse but a nice, bright drink with good varietal characters.
Woodstock Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
Showing obvious secondary leathery characters with a touch of smoke and cigar, more savoury notes and quite nice mouthfeel.
Wynns Black Label CS 2000
Quite a classy, subtle wine, gentle and unforced in nature with soft mint and a mouthwash of firm tannins with a leaf or two of eucalypt. Quite soft and gentle of texture and with good length.
Rookery Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 (Kangaroo Island)
A real surprise packet, a fruit bomb packed to the gills with tannins and a fresh zing of acid and loads of super powered rich Cabernet juice. A broad brush of savoury flavour had me thinking a bit of Shiraz but ultimately a classic, broad shouldered wine with length and time to burn. Not overly complex but focussed and ripe.
Wirra Wirra Angelus 2004
Telltale McLaren Vale signature all over this. Impressive fruit power and good, finessed oak. Nice length, good structure in the mouth and very flavoursome. Will age nicely and probably could do with some years to soften it up and drop some of the big fruit profile.
Houghtons Gladstone Cabernet 2002
Fantastic style, quite possibly my WOTN. Smoky, tobacco nose with hints of herbs, anise and ripening capsicum and lovely cedary oak finish. Terrific, well structured, handsome wine and will age well.
Henschke Cyril Henschke Cabernet 2001
Good wine but a touch imbalanced for me, with some slightly cloying characters. Tons of fruit sweetness, this felt too alcoholic and hot. Some attractive notes of licorice, anise and black pepper but not as refined as the previous two.
Pichon Baron Longueville 1996 2nd Growth
Fantastic, slightly cheesy, feral, funky nose with lovely wafts of French perfume and old handbags. Quite medium bodied, bricking colouring, subdued, characterful and complex wine, with all manner of stuff in the mix - herbs, spice, leather and good evolving length. A world away in style from the previous wines.
Cabernet Tasting
Cabernet Tasting
Cheers
Wayno
Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.
Wayno
Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do without the necessities.
I had a bottle of the Taylors CS 2005 last night.
Fresh bright and lively describes it well.
Lots of fruit, subtle tannins and a nice light touch of oak.
Could probably happily sit for a couple of years to mellow the fruit a touch but is very drinkable now.
My fiance and I had no trouble polishing off the bottle
Fresh bright and lively describes it well.
Lots of fruit, subtle tannins and a nice light touch of oak.
Could probably happily sit for a couple of years to mellow the fruit a touch but is very drinkable now.
My fiance and I had no trouble polishing off the bottle