Wynns J Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

The 2021 John Riddoch Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon is a brilliant wine. It is achingly intense yet is defined by its levity, which is not a common attribute in Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine expounds the virtues of the red gravel in which the fruit was grown, via its iodine and crushed shells, cassis and blood, sweet marrow and tobacco. It tastes so clearly of the place, which is a wonderful thing. The back palate swells with flavor, framed by the earth and the attuned oak. This is a tribute to the earth, an ode to it. Plentiful tannins bob along on the current of fruit. This will cellar interminably. It's up there in both quality and feel with the 2010, or so I think. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

Deep purple doesn’t get much more sultry in the glass, with a plush nose that amplifies the richness and vitality of fruit that’s alive and lively. There are darkest blackberry and mulberry notes rolling around suggestively on silk sheets, a wisp of vine leaf, mint and sage at the edges, underlining the freshness that makes this wine dance on the tongue. This is old vine Cabernet at its most playful and elegant – signalling concentration of flavour without adding density to the palate weight. As a result, the wine carries itself with deceptive lightness, while still having the necessary architecture and tannic bite in the finish to age handsomely for more than a decade.