$25
Dandelion Vineyards’ pride for this wine is well and truly justified. From the glass wafts hints of violets and blackcurrants, layered with fresh herb character. The wine is finely structured with supportive back palate tannin and balanced acidity. This cabernet will make a good compliment to your favorite winter-warming beef or lamb dish.
$55
92 points
The drought conditions of the challenging 2007 season put considerable stress on vines and left a telltale dryness to the finish of many Australian reds. This wine is not immune, but it makes it over the line by virtue of its attractive blackcurrant, capsicum, leaf and tobacco bouquet and its lingering fruit persistence. Firm tannins [...]
$65
94 points
I buy more Bin 389 than any other Penfolds wine. The most consistent and most celebrated of Australia’s definitive Cabernet Shiraz blends is also the best value wine under that famous bright red Penfold’s cap (and now, at last a screw cap). In distinction, style and longevity, 389 flies closer to Penfold’s icon wines than [...]
$110
96 points
Jack is an enigma. Frankland River is perhaps the least likely place for a Swan winery to source its flagship Cabernet. And yet it is always its best, as its tenth anniversary release confirms. For a six-year-old it is still extremely backward, upright and dignified, rippling with all of the markers of great, age-worthy Cabernet. [...]
$199
96 points
The Cellar Reserve range is easily forgotten in the flurry of Penfold’s super-premium and Bin releases, but don’t ignore them because this is where Peter Gago and his team are at their most creative. From very old vines and 100 percent new French oak, this is a wine of exceedingly firm, fine structure which is [...]
$190
96 points
At the time of writing, this wine is still to be released and it’s already controversial. There was no 707 in 2000 or 2003, so why would Penfolds release a super-premium from a vintage that it openly admits was as challenging and drought-ravaged as 2007? Many will be tempted to attribute this decision to Foster’s [...]
$50
96 points
Wendouree is a unique oasis in the heart of the Clare Valley. Not only because of its treasure of historic vines (this wine sourced from 1920, 1940 and 1975 plantings), its traditional winemaking (the hand screw basket press was purchased second hand in 1900), its low alcohols (all between 13.5% and 13.8% in this vintage) [...]
$84
95 points
In the cool south of Margaret River, the exceedingly cool 2006 season resulted in the latest harvest on record at Cape Mentelle. Saved by the addition of some fruit from a warmer vineyard further north in the region, this is a masterful result for a tough season. The bouquet is electric, with fragrant violets and [...]
$121
95 points
Clarendon Hills is a familiar name in cult wine circles for the stature of its McLaren Vale reds. True to form, this is a massive McLaren Vale Cabernet with many decades of life ahead of it. Impenetrably dark, with dense blackcurrant fruit and layers of nutty, dark chocolate oak, it has just the right indicators [...]
$60
95 points
The highest vineyard of the Clare Valley is so isolated that it should perhaps be considered a region in its own right. This is a tough environment in which to grow grapes, a stark, wind-swept landscape, so high that the nearest landmark is a mobile phone tower. The wine is defined by its upbringing, infusing [...]
92 points