[SOLD-OUT] Greenock Creek Roennfeldt Road Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

"2011. Remember that? The worst/wettest vintage ever for many; tricky/trite for others. Some of those vendageurs who'd worked in France and were accustomed to a little botrytis in their Burgundy or Bordeaux reds seemed to do very well with it here even in regions usually bereft of such humidity.

So these gnarly old Shy-razz dinosaurs and trowies in the hard rocks of Hopeless Hill, Roennfeldt Road did what? First, as if they knew what was coming, they raised their hand early for the picking. Then, as they were harvested ahead of the worst of the wet, their fruit began to unveil another beautiful array of musky confectionary and marshmallow sugars. Along with the pastoral lavendars and violets these adorable - indeed the prettiest - decorations are the forefront, but usually the most ethereal and fleeting of the Cabernet aromas.

Second, the wine kept pumping those perennial pretties for over a week. The topnotes of the bouquet I expected to go swampy-soupyvegetal-decay-and-sileage with oxygen haven't wavered after all that air. Combine this tendency with the same habit forming in the other Cabernet over the hills by the Creek, and you have a winery that is now leading its own field: full-flavoured, intense, dumbfounding Cabernets at alcohol levels which are often well below what most experienced drinkers would estimate them to be when tasted blind.

Third, that decay: that tendency of the leafy/laurel/juniper/cedar bits of Cabernet to assimilate with oxidation into a vegetal swampy form over the years is much slower here than it was in the 2014 from the Creek. So if we still had points, I'd have to be squeezing another one out of somewhere to indicate my suspicion that this profound slumberer will last longer in the cellar and could then be the better wine. But c'mon cobber, what's the point?" - Philip White, 2016

 

Country:

Australia

Region:

SA- Barossa Valley

Variety:

Wine Red - Cabernet

Size:

750mL