2020 - Cabernet Sauvignon, Moss Wood, Margaret River

This 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon is an effortless vintage from Moss Wood, although slightly unusual with 7% Petit Verdot (higher than the norm) and 3% Cabernet Franc (lower). It’s an old fashioned claret style, reserved yet precise and focused. It delivers black and red currants, violets and old cedar aromas. French oak relaxes and assures with a mid-weight palate defined by its powerful core of impressive fruit. What I love most is the structure. Very fine yet muscular tannins are beautifully integrated and deliver a finish of extreme length. A classic in the making that is already drinking superbly. Petit Verdot structure adds tension that will help this star age extremely well.

The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon is a child of the 2020 season, which was warm, early and low yielding, and the wines from the area have been decidedly structural, lushly fruited and powerful. All in all, they are excellent quality across the board, and this wine here is no exception. Dense tannins, layered with pink peppercorn, nori, blood, brine and bay leaf, were quite firm in this vintage, but with knowledge of how this wine ages, this is not a problem in the least. I've given it a conservative drinking window by decades, if stored well. Sealed under screw cap.