The Best of Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon

95 Points – Jay Miller (erobertparker.com)

The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Ashmead is a single vineyard selection aged for 18 months in new French 300-liter barrels (aka hogsheads). It offers up a superb bouquet of pain grille, pencil lead, scorched earth, espresso, spice box, black currant, and blackberry liqueur. Opulent on the palate, it has gobs of succulent black fruit, well-concealed ripe tannins, impeccable balance, and a long finish. Cellar it for 5-7 years and drink it from 2014 to 2028.

 International Wine Challenge: Gold 2017

 Decanter World Wine Awards: Silver 2017 & 2018

Deep crimson-purple; whereas the '11 had to fight every inch of the way, this wine displays almost contemptuous ease in the way it has marshalled the layers of black fruits and ripe tannins that soak up the new oak inputs. This will be one of the long-lived, great Black Labels.

Gold Medal – Rutherglen Wine Show 
Gold Medal – Cowra Wine Show 2016
Gold Medal – 2017 Royal Adelaide Wine Show
Gold Medal – 2017 Mundus Vini International Wine Show
Gold Medal – Royal Hobart International Wine Show 2016
Gold Medal – Wine Show of Western Australia 2016
Gold Medal – Royal Melbourne Wine Awards 2016
Top Gold & Trophy – 2017 Perth Royal Wine Show

2017 Trophy Best Cabernet Sauvignon Top Gold Medal – Rutherglen Wine Show 

2017 Trophy Best Cabernet Sauvignon Top Gold & Trophy – '16 Perth Royal Wine Show 

Top Gold & 4 Trophies – 2017 Wine Show of Western Australia – Best Wine of Show, Best Red Wine of Show, Best Cabernet Sauvignon, Best and Most Distinctive Regional Character

96 Points - James Halliday

From a dry grown vineyard in Wilyabrup, planted in the late '70s. Hand-picked, open fermented for 17 days then heads to French oak barriques for 3 years, and once bottled allowed to relax for 15 months. What a wine. Complex yet refined with florals, cassis and warm earth, full-bodied but long and pure with svelte tannins. Only 92 dozen made.

95 Points - Robert Parker

A gorgeous effort, the 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon screams blueberries, creme de cassis, licorice, cedar, and spice box. The oak component can not stand up to the lavish, extravagant amounts of fruit and glycerin. This intense, full-bodied, surprisingly pure and elegant Cabernet should last at least a decade.

17+ Points - Julia Harding (JancisRobinson.com)

Deep cherry red. Elegant after so much sweet fruit throughout this Australia tasting, more stony than leafy. Richer fruit on the palate but there’s freshness to balance. Tannins compact but smooth. A wine with a long future. Tangy long finish. 

94 Points - James Halliday

Medium red-purple; the moderately intense bouquet is fragrant, with an appropriate array of spicy, foresty, cedary aromas, the fine, light to medium-bodied palate with berry, cedar and olive flavours supported by fine, ripe tannins. Stylish and elegant.

91 Points - James Halliday

70/30%, fermented separately in open-fermenters, the cabernet remaining on skins for 17 days, the touriga for 9 days, matured in French oak (20% new) for 24 months, plus a further 24 months bottle age. Stuart Pym has got his teeth into this bone, and isn't about to let go. It's got flavour, texture, structure, a point of difference - what it doesn't have is the finesse or logic of his other wines.

96 Points - Jay Miller (erobertparker.com)

The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Hickinbotham Vineyard is the most muscular and densely packed of the Cabernets. This opulent effort will evolve for a minimum of a decade and drink well through 2036.The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon Hickinbotham Vineyard is the most muscular and densely packed of the Cabernets. This opulent effort will evolve for a minimum of a decade and drink well through 2036. Roman Bratasiuk’s Clarendon Hills is one of the world’s great wine estates. The wines are all 100% varietal...