2013 Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra

First made in 1982, the John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon was conceived as a flagship wine for the Wynns portfolio. The wine honours pasturalist and parliamentarian, John Riddoch, who was the largest land-owner in South Australia’s south-east corner. With his brother George, the two owned the freehold of more than 70 000 acres. Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon is made in small quantities from the best available fruit grown on the estate’s extensive Cabernet plantings. It has become a definitive Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, made only in years when grapes of extraordinarily high quality are available - less than one percent of Wynns' top Cabernet grapes.

Spent 16 months in French oak (21% new). Dense and bright, with a purple hue. Dark, concentrated aromatics of black olive, mulberry and baked meats are elegantly fused with bay leaf and fennel seed, creating an opulent and complex wine. Supple and polished, this wine first displays concentrated black olive and mulberry, which lead to elegant tobacco, cassis and hints of rosemary. Powerful and restrained, the melding of concentrated dark fruit, subtle savoury notes and definitive, firm, bright chalky tannins, create a timeless wine with phenomenal purity and savoury spice finish. 

97 pts – JHalliday

A potent, rich, complex, full-bodied cabernet that has a signature as indelible as that of Grange. Cassis/blackcurrant fruit, with touches of earth, tar and licorice, pours in a rush along the palate, not held up by oak or tannins, both subsumed into the fabric of the wine. 13.5%/$150/2053