2023 Parker Estate Terra Rossa Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra

The 2023 Terra Rossa opens with earthy red fruit, time in the glass allowing violet notes to emerge with suggestions of licorice, cocoa powder and mint. Medium-bodied, the supple palate has a taut and dense core of fruit with light touches of oak spice, and fine tannins carrying the flavours on a reasonably long, flavoursome finish

Fine-bone and aromatic, a glass of this would sit nicely with Spanish style steaks served with Romesco and charred spring onions. Alternatively, try with charred eggplant and black garlic filled tortelli, perhaps with a sage infused brown butter sauce and crisp fried capers.

About this wine

Parker Estate’s Terra Rossa wines are made from selected blocks of the estate’s original Abbey vineyard. The cool and wet La Niña conditions of the 2023 growing season had a significant impact on Coonawarra and required disciplined attention to detail in vine canopy management. Many of Coonawarra’s wines of the season are of very good quality and show the overall quality first priorities of the region. While they might come across a touch lighter than in warmer years, they show freshness and attractive aromatics and are likely to develop well in bottle.

This wine fermented in closed top fermenters for 12 days and completed malolactic fermentation in stainless steel before a 12-month maturation in French oak barrels of which half were new, the balance being a mix of second to fourth fill barrels.

About this producer

Parker Estate was established by John and Faye Parker’s 1985 planting of the Abbey Vineyard in Coonawarra with the Reynell Selection of Cabernet Sauvignon. Current owners, the Hesketh family through their Usual Suspects Collective, acquired the estate in 2013. The vineyards sit over a limestone base beneath rich Terra Rossa topsoil, a distinctive combination that has been the foundation of the region’s fame.