Diana Madeline Cabernet/Merlot, Cullen Wines 2020

This is bright, layered and gently herbal cabernet-based blend with a deliciously textured array of black fruit, mint chocolate, iodine, olive stones, eucalyptus and bay leaves. Medium-bodied, with firm yet well-integrated tannins. Savoury. Creamy and fine at the end. 92% cabernet sauvignon, 4% merlot, 3% cabernet franc and 1% malbec. From biodynamically grown grapes.

Has the usual estate blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc and malbec (92/4/3/1%), the grapes hand picked on fruit days between early February and early March, the components matured in French oak (50% new) for 13 months. The perfumed bouquet has already soaked up the new oak, the purity of the fruit in a cassis-redcurrant-blueberry spectrum. The small berries of a quasi-drought summer might have imposed awkward tannins, but the medium-bodied palate is so perfectly balanced it has a drinking span of 30 years and counting.”