Coonawarra vs Clare

97 points from James Halliday (incidentally this is the same score the last 2 winners of the Halliday Annual Cabernet Challenge received).

This is luxe, bounteous and exceptionally powerful. Double decant a few hours before drinking, or drink it over several days and watch it evolve.

Black tea, cedar, anise, mulberry, violet, black liquorice and masses of silky mouthcoating tannins and a real finesse to the palate shape. Symphonic fruit which builds to a mighty crescendo.

There’s something about the Australian Cabernet–Shiraz blend — a partnership that’s rare elsewhere in the world — that just works here.

For two decades, Matthew Jukes and Tyson Stelzer ran the annual Great Australian Wine Challenge because, as they put it, “The Cabernet Shiraz blend is Australia’s definitive wine style — its only truly unique and ageworthy flagbearer to stand confidently alongside the benchmark reds of Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône, Piedmont, Tuscany and California.”

We couldn’t agree more at WD, and this Eos is a world-class expression of the style: succulent blue and purple fruits, layers of chocolate, liquorice and plum, all wrapped up in a truckload of fine, powdery tannins and cedary oak.

2021 was a magnificent vintage, as this bottle attests. Black and blue fruits abound, along with spice and cedar. Length here and persistence are exemplary. Give it a decant before drinking or hang onto it for a decade or more.

A first release Reserve Cabernets from Leconfield. This blend sees Leconfield's finest Cab Sauv co-fermented with Merlot and Cab Franc, resulting in the perfectly harmonious integration of flavours. Deep in colour; the nose is fresh, and bright, offering dark fruit aromas, cedar, cigar box and dark chocolate. It balances richness with elegance beautifully and finishes with perfectly modulated fine tannins. Exceptional already, and has a long future ahead of it.

2018 was a pretty fine vintage, and the Mitchell Kalmar Vineyard, quite close to cellar door is an exceptional vineyard. Soooo, in 2018 the Mitchells made the call to pick, vinify and bottle this vineyard with the intention of releasing a standalone wine. It is a ripper, blacker, denser and with exceptional potential for ageing. The Kalmar is laden with black fruits, graphite, spice and more. The texture here is thick, without being overwhelming, and the palate extremely long. Drinkable now, yeppers, but will cellar like a champ too.

An exceptional single vineyard Cab from one of Kilikanoon's original blocks. There's greater fruit weight and complexity here than in any previous release. Tobacco, blackcurrant, tomato leaf, thyme, sage and plenty more on the go here. Give it a good decant end enjoy.