John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon, Wynns Coonawarra Estate 2021

The 2021 John Riddoch Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon is a brilliant wine. It is achingly intense yet is defined by its levity, which is not a common attribute in Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine expounds the virtues of the red gravel in which the fruit was grown, via its iodine and crushed shells, cassis and blood, sweet marrow and tobacco. It tastes so clearly of the place, which is a wonderful thing. The back palate swells with flavor, framed by the earth and the attuned oak. This is a tribute to the earth, an ode to it. Plentiful tannins bob along on the current of fruit. This will cellar interminably. It's up there in both quality and feel with the 2010, or so I think. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

Deep inky purple, full concentration, gorgeous chalky tannins, this is just such a consistently impressive wine, with stretched out architecture and a real kick of freshness, full of Cabernet Sauvignon cassis that sits on the edge of capsicum and eucalyptus, with rose bud and raspberry leaf, black truffle, espresso, cocoa bean, peppery fleshy plum. Savoury, intense and highly spiced. Great quality, tasted twice, easily one of the best wines of the September Releases.