The Auswine Forum

1996 Rouge Homme Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon. 13%. Cork. $19 (at auction in March).

Cork well stained to 3-4mm. Lots of crystals. Very, very dark red. Some browning and bricking only at the very edge.

Classic Coonawarra nose of floral and sweet cassis/blackcurrant with a little mint/eucalypt. Bouquet filled the kitchen while I decanted it. I was excited by the colour and smell. Fingers crossed for the taste!

Blackberry and blackcurrant fruit on the savoury palate. It's sweet at the same time and has some lovely fine-grained tannins. This does not taste like a thirteen-year old wine as the fruit is alive an singing. Lovely complexity which intrigues the palate, making you want to take another sip immediately after the last. In the decanter the secondary flavours of tobacco leaf/cigar box/old wood(?) come out. A pleasure to have in the mouth. Delicious.

This is what makes auction buys so worthwhile. Under $20 for a gem like this.

Does anyone know if current releases compare?

Michael

I actually tried a 98 a long time ago when first getting into wine and found it superb. It probably helped drive home my preference for cab sav in the early days. Might have actually been my first "aged wine" (though wasn’t very old) experience tasting secondary characters and bottle development. So a bit of memorable wine for me.

Sorry though Michael, have not tried recent vintages.

Sam

Aye it was a good one the 96. Sadly been run down like a lot of big market brands.

cheers

Carl

I bought a bottle of this about a month and a half ago at La Vigna in Perth for about $20 bucks and was pleasantly surprised too.

It tasted fresh as a daisy.

Rouge Homme Cab used to be the house red in the 70's. The lost their way big time through the 80's and early 90's. I obviously must give them another go.

Davo wrote:Rouge Homme Cab used to be the house red in the 70's. The lost their way big time through the 80's and early 90's. I obviously must give them another go.

I only can speak from about 93/94 onwards

Late 90's was good. Recent years very ordinary. I guess they just shunt the grapes form the vineyards into various brands and it just depends if you are lucky that year?

cheers

Carl