This Coonawarra icon has delivered its fair share of stunners as well as a few disappointments along the way, but here the secret lies in the fact this, like so many good Bordeaux’s, from a good vintage, is a minimum twenty-year-wine. And twenty is when I like to start drinking them! Keep this in mind if you see any floating around the traps but do your utmost (as I did in this case) to ensure the wine has been well stored.

Harbours a mature deep brick red colour with ample brown to the meniscus. The bouquet reeks of mature Cabernet - sandalwood, lead pencil, old books, cigar box, cedar and “Coonawarra mint” (not really mint as in the purest herbal sense but a rare regional blend comprising of a blend of eucalypt and peppermint with a sneaky herby/weedy tweak) with some very decent blackcurrant undertones that provide a fascinating counterbalance for everything sitting atop. The palate steps up a notch or two in that it tastes younger and fresher with abundant acidity providing spark and lift, wonderful purity of Cabernet flavour with a robust French oak backing, some seriously firm grippy tannins and an interminably long, wonderfully good finish. I’d rate this around 91 just at the minute and when the tannin softens in several years could render a slightly higher call. The 12.3 A/V is an absolute godsend for me. Long live the wines that need time to get better and better!