The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 88% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec, 3% Cabernet Franc, 3% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot, sourced mainly from Keyes and La Jota vineyards. Deep garnet-purple in color, it storms out of the glass with notes of blackcurrant pastilles, plum preserves, and chocolate-covered cherries with hints of tar, cedar chest, and cardamom. Full-bodied, the palate is solidly constructed with a rock-solid texture of grainy tannins and bold freshness supporting the tightly wound fruit, finishing with loads of shimmery mineral sparks. 6,825 cases were made. While the 2018 is bright and floral, 2019 has more of the savory character. Every vintage has a personality, and 2019 is definitely more sultry.

The 2018 Cabernet Bosche Rutherford is composed of 93% Cabernet Sauvignon and 7% Merlot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it comes galloping out with energetic notes of blackcurrant cordial, stewed black cherries, and black raspberries, plus hints of pencil shavings, black olives, camphor, and fragrant earth. Full-bodied, the palate has a rock-solid structure of super firm, ripe, tannins and compelling freshness supporting the intense, youthful fruit, finishing long with a skip in its step. It should age very well! 2,200 cases were made. The wine takes its name from the Bosche vineyard situated in the Rutherford Bench, which features deep gravelly soil and a seasonal underground stream that feeds the vines in the spring and dries up in the summer.

The 2019 Cabernet Franc is a blend of 79% Cabernet Franc and 21% Merlot. From Spring Mountain and Diamond Mountain, this Cabernet Franc is very different from what Carpenter makes at La Jota or Mt. Brave. Deep garnet-purple in color, it delivers gorgeous notes of red roses and lavender over a core of ripe redcurrants, black raspberries, and mulberries with suggestions of underbrush, damp slate, and pencil shavings. The medium to full -bodied palate reveals a compelling texture of super-pixilated tannins and seamless freshness, finishing long and fragrant.

When I was at Yangarra, we tasted the component parts of the 2020 Ovitelli Blanc straight from egg. For those of us who have been to the estate, I am certain you will join me in saying that there is much to love and admire, from the organically/biodynamically farmed and certified vineyards (and winery) to the understanding of the inherent benefits of the McLaren Vale region and its suitability to Rhone varieties, all the way through to the eggs, the amphorae and the other good-looking ceramic vessels in the winery. This is a place of specificity and purpose, responsible for wines of poise and impact. So, to the wine. Composed of 50% Grenache Blanc, 25% Roussanne, 12% Clairette, 9% Piquepoul and 4% Bourboulenc, all components contribute to the whole. You’ll find white spice, flowers, chalk, white tea, apricot kernel, green apple skins, a faint whiff of honeydew melon and nashi pear. The acidity is threaded throughout it all in such a way that it pulses with life, but the main event is still the phenolics, which is a pretty cool balance to strike. In terms of white wine, this is the future of McLaren Vale.

As an Australian, it is hard to read “Roux Beaute” and not think “you beaut.” Thankfully, the internal rhyming suggestion is apt. The 2020 Roux Beaute Roussanne is concentrated and broad, with layers of phenolics in the mouth—bitter almond, green apple skin, white flowers, caper berries, cheesecloth, brine and feijoa, even custard apple, perhaps. It's good. It's really good. It shows that textural breadth and depth can still be lively and bright. This is an exciting wine and very well handled. You beaut.

Red-fruited, nutty, almost raspberry, pomegranate aspects, pips, florals, star anise. It seems slight and lifted, strict and precise, on the whole, but its exuberant fragrance and that slight sweetness to the fruit helps promote an impression of generosity. Talc-powdery, ultra-fine grained, velour tracksuit-esque tannin is another high quality marker, as are the whispers of stalk and briar. This is from a vineyard planted by Lou Primavera 25 years ago at Woori Yallock. Excellent release, no question.

Mid-light purple-red colour, bright and youthful, with aromas of mixed spices, raspberry, smoky oak and charcuterie, gentle palate texture and pleasingly drying tannins at the end. Excellent intensity. A nice touch of fruit sweetness at the heart of it, then a drying flush of fine tannin moves in. Delicious pinot.

Delivers a gorgeous, generous mix of velvety dark chocolate-covered cherry, red licorice and mocha as well as hints of fresh mint, huckleberry and boysenberry at the core. This wine's power is matched by refinement and a long, expressive finish, where spicy notes linger. Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. Drink now through 2035.

Smoky, peppery and sleek, this medium-bodied wine offers great complexity on an elegant frame. Vivid aromas of black pepper and wood smoke lead to generous but focused blackberry and sour cherry flavors braced by moderate tannins. Best 2025–2030.

Juicy cherry, berry and citrus give life to this bold, lush and brilliant wine, sticky in grippy tannin with a muscular, sturdy structure. Dense and brooding in style, it finishes in bolts of cardamom, vanilla bean and forest.

Velvety smooth and earthy in compost and crushed rock and herb, this hearty red wine is rich in red cherry and strawberry, with a persistence of baking spice. Secondary notes of cedar, cigar and oak provide a savory complement and edge.

Varietally intriguing and compelling in tobacco, clove and blackberry, this full-bodied wine is tremendously appealing, with dark, brooding layers of spice and garrigue. Rich and lengthy, it shows plenty of complexity around a supple core of inviting succulence and well-integrated tannin and oak.

Thick, tannic and herbal, this is an earthy and ethereal wine from the coast, aromatic in rose petal and forest floor. A notable backbone of acidity keeps it fresh and energetic in the glass amid a savory landscape of salty, silky structure.

While the 2020 Ovitelli has this levity, purity and freshness above and beyond Hickinbotham, there’s no doubting the pedigree, tannin prowess and finesse of this wine. I prefer the drinkability and drive of Ovitelli, but I admire the Hickinbotham more, in a way. Richness, ripeness of fruit, lifted on trails of pomegranate juice and rose hip tea, grippy tannins go gummy and draw the wine long, it has a mouth-watering fresh finish at the lingering depths of the red fruit characters. Dried herbs, anise, fennel, brambles, some hazelnut and ashy clove for complexity. Serious stuff, very, very good.

This has aromas of cassis, plums, oranges, milk chocolate, bay leaves and clay. So juicy and succulent, with a medium body and firm, creamy tannins. Pretty hazelnut and chocolate character at the end. Long and elegant. Drink or hold.

Fresh, brambly and fragrant, this has aromas of blueberry and red plum with a very chiseled palate that winds fine tannin around an elegant core of red-cherry fruit flavor. So focused and elegant. Drink over the next six years. Screw cap.

This has such effortless depth and impressive measure. It delivers aromas of ripe red and dark plums with slate and blackberries, framed in fresh, subtly spicy and cedary oak. The palate is packed with ripe red plums, red cherries and mulberries, as well as deeper blueberries and darker plums. The power is innate and the palate so focused. Elegant and pure. Drink over the next decade or more. Screw cap.

Aka Giant Wombat. It’s worth going to the Giant Steps website just to see the pic of the Wombat Creek Vineyard – here – and how it’s quite literally cut out of forest. As a general rule with the Giant Steps single vineyard Pinot Noir “We try to do as much whole bunch as we can get away with. Wombat and Primavera are on red soil. Applejack and Sexton are on grey soil. Wombat (MV6) 2021 is entirely whole bunch/the rest are roughly 50/50.” This release is taut, spicy, herbal and sure. Wonderfully savoury and wonderfully good. Fruit pushes through the savouriness without ever taking over. Perfume, this is aflame with it. Tannin, in sheets, inscribed with the finest handwritten flavours. A wonderful wine, pure Upper Yarra, detail and texture, perfume and flavour, mouthwatering red cherry and cranberry fruit with salty, silty tannin and fragrant herbs/flowers wafting over. The power of the light touch.

This seemed ultra-reserved in the context of the Tarraford, which I’d tasted immediately prior.
Citrus here and red apple, with pear, the citrus both pure juice and preserved. Oak spice, and custard powder characters, are so well threaded, ginger nut/biscuit aspects rising through the finish. World apart from the Tarraford; perfect pigeon pair. The longer it sat in the glass the more those complex, juicy, apple-like characters blossomed, marzipan with them, nectarines squeezed with salted lemons. This is a wine of tight, complex power, the fruit pure and commanding, the finish taut but persistent.

Another 500 metres further up the hill, so to speak.
The 2021 Giant Steps single vineyard chardonnays mean business. They have the reserve of the confident. This seemed yet more reserved than the Sexton, which itself was more reserved than the Tarraford, and yet like them both it feels commanding. Stones, green pineapple, musk and poached red apple flavours, almost and pretty much effectively into quince, with grippy texture even as it pushes (confidently) through the finish. There is the influence of florals here, the influence of pear, the influence of crushed woodsy spices. This needs time but wow what a wine.

Vines here are nearly 40 years old. It’s the highest, coolest and most southerly of the single vineyard chardonnay sites.
Great push of musk, fennel and red apple flavour before toasted peach and vanilla characters power through. Incredibly intricate wine, perfumed, powerful, long, textural/grippy, gently creamy, and then when you think it’s finished, a peppery/herbal spray to the aftertaste. You can see the oak on this but it absolutely carries it; of all the 2021 releases it’s the one most in need of extra time for the sake of pure oak integration. But we have another super wine on our hands here.

This vintage, 77% Cabernet Sauvignon is supported by Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot to soften and lend extra layers of rich fruit. Intense blueberry and violet aromas are joined by savoury wild herb notes, surely contributed by the surrounding madrone and bay laurels in the vineyard. There is plenty of black and blue fruit, rich loamy earth tones and powerful, sculpted tannins framed by firm acidity. Finishes long and minerally. Calls for short rib or seasoned, grilled ribeye, nicely salted.

From old, unirrigated vines at Hickinbotham, in Clarendon.The only cuvée produced outside of Yangarra Estate. Destemmed, crushed and tipped into a ceramic egg where it remained on skins for 170 days. Gorgeous. Pinosity in spades. Noble bitterness. Lavender and white pepper. Pink grapefruit pulp and sapid, sour-cherry accents. Like the most glorious amaro with a slice of Sicilian orange, this plays a finessed card of consummate elegance, racy length, crunchy saline tannins and latent power. Brethren to Ovitelli in terms of shape, if not a bit looser and more flamboyant at the seams. A belly dancer in a souk of carnal desire. Scintillating, uber-aromatic grenache.

The Applejack Vineyard is planted across the hill, at the same altitude as the Primavera Vineyard on gray clay over mudstone, and picked within a few days of that site. The 2021 Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir included 50% whole bunch in the mix and is a blend of seven different clones. This shows wonderful clarity and poise—it is precise and layered with energy and life. The acid pulses through the phenolic texture in the mouth. It was originally a sparkling vineyard, down the hill from Wombat Creek, situated in an eastern-facing bowl that captures the morning sunlight. Mel Chester (head of winemaking and viticulture) talks about the smell of the tea trees in the vineyard, explaining that "there's always a couple of Wedgetail eagles circling, it's a magic place." The evocative description of the vineyard carries through into the wine, which shows a satisfying, delicious resolution of plump ripe fruit and beautifully resolved tannin. Balance 101.

The 2002 Le Desir is made from 53% Merlot, 41% Cabernet Franc, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 1% Malbec. Medium to deep garnet-brick colored, it slowly unfurls to reveal notes of baked red and black cherries, dried mulberries, and stewed plums, plus suggestions of sauteed herbs, damp soil, cast-iron pan, and Indian spices. Medium to full-bodied, the palate delivers evolving red and black fruits with lifted herbal sparks and a soft texture, finishing long and savory.