Landmark Tutorial: Cabernet Sauvignon
Seminar 6: ‘Cabernet Sauvignon and Friends’ Blind-Tasting presented by Brian Croser
This was one of the more controversial sessions of the Landmark, not because, as a blind-tasting, it yielded any astonishing surprises as how to these Australian fine wines showed alongside the likes of 2005 Ridge Monte Bello and 2005 Chateau Pichon Lalande, but rather for its premise.
Brian Croser asked the group as a whole to vote, having tasted each wine blind, as to whether the wine in question was essentially a terroir wine – i.e. showing mainly its origins viticulturally rather than primarily illustrating the influence of the winemaker – or was essentially a wine in which the hand of the winemaker (and, by extension, winemaking process) was uppermost.
- 2008 Balnaves of Coonawarra The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra
- 2006 Zema Estate Saluti Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz, Coonawarra
- 2004 Wynns John Riddoch Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2005 Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet/Merlot/Petit Verdot/Cabernet Franc, Santa Cruz Mountains (CA)
- 2008 Moss Wood Amy’s Cabernet Sauvignon/Petiti Verdot/Malbec/Merlot, Margaret River
- 2007 Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc/Petit Verdot, Margaret River
- 2007 Vasse Felix Heytesbury Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec/Petit Verdot, Margaret River
- 2004 Hardy Wine Co. Thomas Hardy Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River
- 2005 Chateau Pichon Lalande Cabernet/Merlot/Cabernet Franc/Petit Verdot, Pauillac (Bordeaux)
- 2004 Wirra Wirra Angelus Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale
- 2007 Henschke Cyril Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc, Eden Valley
- 2006 Lake Breeze Arthur’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot/Malbec, Langhorne Creek
- 2006 Wendouree Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec, Clare Valley
- 2007 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia
- 2007 Yarra Yering Carrodous Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, Yarra Valley
I wasn’t especially comfortable with this distinction and Karen MacNeil, seated to my left, made her reservations about this apparent dichotomy clear to the panel. Perhaps, in the cases of certain wines, the nominal split between ‘winemaker wines’ and ‘terroir wines’ might hold, especially for wines made on more commercial terms v. wines with a distinct sense of origin. This would be a question of a wine’s style rather than privileging one form of wine over another. But just how far such a dichotomy can be stretched in the arena of fine wine is arguable.
Croser, perhaps playing devil’s advocate, certainly initiated debate at a time when consumers in some international markets – the US and UK especially – often equate Australia with over-extracted, burly, alcoholic wines based largely on inter-regional blending. Having said that, there was discussion of a ‘house style’ effect (i.e. in terms of winemaking) in the case of the 2007 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia, an extremely good wine with a considerable future ahead. Given the Bin 707 constitutes a blend from various South Australian sites, then maybe it would be fair to say that wines based on blending from various terroirs are necessarily, but not in a pejorative sense, winemakers’ wines (witness, also, Champagne, Sherry, Port etc.). To this extent, this session anticipated Brian Walsh’s ‘Single Vineyards and Sacred Sites versus Blending’ tasting later in the week.
Generally speaking, however, the group discovered wines with a distinct sense of place regardless of winemaking style(s) – Thomas Woolrych from the UK’s Direct Wines identifying almost all of them blind by region. In other words, the wines evidenced all the advantages of Australia’s cutting-edge winemaking – in terms of purity of fruit, sensitive handling of oak, overall balance etc. – with characteristics clearly indicating regional differences, for example, Margaret River v. Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon. The differences were even more marked when the cooler and relatively undiscovered virtues of Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (and its Cabernet-blends) came to light.
Of especially high quality from this session were: 2004 Wynns John Riddoch Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, 2007 Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc/Petit Verdot, Margaret River, 2004 Hardy Wine Co. Thomas Hardy Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, 2004 Wirra Wirra Angelus Cabernet Sauvignon, McLaren Vale, 2006 Lake Breeze Arthur’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot/Malbec, Langhorne Creek, 2006 Wendouree Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec, Clare Valley, 2007 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia, 2007 Yarra Yering Carrodous Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot, Yarra Valley of which the Wirra Wirra Angelus, Wendouree and Penfolds Bin 707 were the stand-out wines.
Editor’s note: This is an ongoing 13-part series of Edward Ragg’s account of Australia’s 2010 Landmark Tutorial. Each week, Edward will give us an insider’s view of the program.
Photo: Wendouree Vineyard. Credit: http://australianwinejournal.blogspot.com
You hit the tasting note spot on for the Bin 707. What I love about this wine is its big structure balanced with just the right acidity and, as you mention, chewy tannins. I’m hoping can get my hands on a case for cellaring!
Thank you very much, Richard, for your comment. Bin 707 has a well-deserved following and the 2007 will be extremely good in future. As you say, definitely a candidate for long-term ageing!
I almost hate to ask this, since your notes are so thorough and informative, but the wine nerd inside me has to ask . . . what’s it like to taste with Karen M. sitting next to you? She’s the author of one of the first wine books I ever bought! Hopefully she was nice and down to earth and not too snobby!
Many thanks for your comment. It was a pleasure to taste with Karen MacNeil. I wholeheartedly agreed with her reservations about this exercise (i.e. dividing the wines up in terms of whether they were ‘terroir wines’ or ‘winemaker wines’). As noted in the above post, I recognize there may be relatively clear cases where these terms might apply; after the exercise, I could also see Croser’s point, for polemical purposes, of challenging tasters in this way (especially given how Australian wines tend to be slotted into sometimes reductive categories by consumers and marketers alike). But what this session ultimately showed, with respect to Australian fine wines, is that those categories are not, on the whole, relevant. We found numerous wines with a distinct sense of place/origin that were equally well-crafted in terms of winemaking and, in some cases, where the winemaking was relatively overt. But I see no essential problem in that. It is a question of degree and, ultimately, a question of whatever appeals to individual palates.