Cab.Sauvignon

We are delighted to be working with the brilliant De Martino on this new addition to our range. The wine is surprisingly restrained, a nod to Bordeaux evident in its lean, focused character and fine, grainy tannins. This is, however, still full of fresh blackberry fruit with sweet black cherries completing the long yet refreshing finish. Perfect to pour straight away, this also has the gravitas to merit decanting – if you have the patience, that is.
Catriona Felstead MW, Wine Buyer

Classic Coonawarra Cabernet, cool blackcurrant fruit with a hint of mint. Lovely intensity. Tannins are fine and well-integrated, good depth across the palate with an attractive ‘juiciness’ to the fruit. Silky and feels very complete already, the benefit of releasing to the market with some bottle age. This is a very fine but generous Cabernet, simply a very impressive wine which will age beautifully (but there’s no need to wait!) Drink 2019 – 2026+
Martyn Rolph, Private Account Sales Manager
 
The aromas immediately announce the variety, displaying intense characters of blackcurrant, red berry, black olive and a subtle hint of menthol.  Combined with the nutty oak aromas, this wine delivers a complex yet elegant bouquet.
The palate of this wine has a perfectly aligned structure, weight and intensity creating a backbone for longevity.  The aromas on the nose follow through onto the palate and these full bodied, spicy flavours combined with pin point acidity and firm, grainy tannins deliver a wine of stature and grace.  This wine will continue to develop in complexity and interest for as long as you can manage to cellar it.
Winemakers Note

This is distinctively Cabernet on the nose, with an attractive perfume of cassis and dark black berry fruits, as well as a subtle herbal top note. The tannins are powdery and firm, supporting the concentration and density on the palate. The length is extraordinary and the savoury finish delicious, inviting you to pour a second glass. Drink 2020-2035.
Fiona Hayes, Buyer (September 2019)

DeSante is a small grower and their Cabernet comes from the prestigious Oakville area within the Napa Valley, home to some of the most highly regarded and sought-after wines in California. I love this Cabernet: although it displays the typical generosity and power of a Napa Cabernet, there is a purity and elegance that defines the wine and makes it incredibly accessible. Wines of this quality can be rather expensive and unaffordable, but DeSante – who make only 1,000 cases in total – really deliver with this wine, both in terms of price and quality.
Fiona Hayes, Wine Buyer (winter 2018)

Katharine and David spend a day in the cooperage every vintage, making sure that the toasting is suited to the vintage conditions – just another example of their meticulous attention to detail. This cuvée is aged for 10 months in 50 percent new oak. The fruit comes entirely from Oakville. Despite being a trickier vintage, Desante has managed to obtain balance between the 14.5 percent alcohol, ripe fruit and chalky tannins. The wine offers cassis, liquorice, clove and ripe red-fruit aromas, with warm, spicy notes on the finish.
Fiona Hayes, Wine Buyer

Napa Valley's Rutherford Bench is acknowledged as one of the very best Cabernet sites outside of Medoc. John William's Frog's Leap Estate is superbly placed, bang slap in the middle of it. This, his flagship wine, captures the fine 'Rutherford Dust' terroir charater perfectly: still a babe, nothing gawky here, just fabulous pace, crunchy redcurrant purity, the raciest of Corvette lines and no new oak! Only 1188 cases made, of which we have the tiniest of allocations, this 92% Cabernet Sauvignon 8% Cabernet Franc wine could be enjoyed now with decanting but best kept for a few years, till 2020 say. A veritable swan.
(David Berry Green )

Year on year this never fails to impress. The complexity, solidity and balance here shines brightly, even when lined up alongside other stellar Penfolds offerings. The nose is deep, full of liquorice intensity and well-packed dark fruits infused with fine-grained tree bark. The palate is closed-in, but the quality of rich blackcurrant and dark plum fruit is unmissable. Broad and almost chocolate-like in texture, this has fine-grained velvet tannins and a great line of persistent freshness that conjures notes of dark cherry. The long finish is all about the quality of ripe fruit. It’s seductive now, with everything already in the right place, but this beauty will only improve. Drink 2021-2028.
Peter Newton, Private Account Manager

In contrast to Bin 707, Bin 169 is the expression of the fruit and terroir from one single region, Coonawarra, perhaps the region more closely associated with Cabernet Sauvignon in Australia than any other. Matured for 14 months in new French oak, contemporary style showing both regionality and maturation of Cabernet Sauvignon in fine grained French oak.

The 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon is deep garnet-purple colored with a mind-blowingly gorgeous nose that defies words: warm cassis, red roses, sandalwood, Indian spices, crushed rocks, menthol and iron ore with waft of lilacs and truffles. Medium to full-bodied with a rock-solid frame of super-ripe, grainy tannins and tons of freshness, it finishes incredibly long and remains incredibly provocative.
Robert Parker 

Reticent and tight at first on the nose, the wine opens up to reveal dark, small-berried cassis fruit, fruits of the forest and wet stone. The palate is the essence of power and elegance, like a giant slalom skier – elegant, suave in form, yet with great power and strength. The palate is full of minerality, with black and red fruit, and an iron or pepper-like spiciness. This has great acidity at the front and tensile tannins – ripe yet tight and huge, boding very well for its future development. One can almost see the remoteness and wildness of this unique vineyard, in terms of the wine’s strength and brooding darkness, yet at the same time an almost effortless, wistful, cerebral quality. For me, it has a distinct personality and sense of place, hints of Napa in the fruit and yet the structure reminded me of the strength and iron core so often found in the likes of Ch. Latour versus its other First Growth Bordeaux peers. Much like some of the world’s finest and most complex wines, this is a wine made on the edge of what is possible, truly expressive of its surroundings, opening and closing over its evolution, flirting with perfection. It’s something very special. It’ll be hard to resist over the next few years, but this has the stuffing to last very easily over the next decade or so. Drink 2027-35+.
Stuart Rae, Fine Wine Commercial Manager 

Returning to my original tasting notes, it is clear I must have been utterly captivated by the 2012 Promontory. Descriptors referencing black forest gâteaux, macerated blueberries and baking spices of all kind were scribbled with haste to capture the character of the wine before the next intriguing layer unfurled. On reflection, my initial excitement remains palpable, what a truly glorious offering. The precision and purity on the nose is remarkable, a crystalline clarity like you’re smelling in high definition, there’s lots of everything but not too much of anything. Cherry and blackcurrant fruit is rich and dense, but held in check by granite and cool stone. Left in the glass, a cooling freshness persists. So fine is the interplay of lustrous berries and svelte, silky tannins that, for a red of such grand proportions, it seems almost refreshing. All before a finish that lasts an age. Outstanding and a real joy to drink, an experience any wine lover should aspire to.
Jared Ehret, Private Account Manager