A food-friendly Cabernet Sauvignon blend that will only improve with age…
Name: The Cabernets
Vintage: 2014
Producer: Skillogalee
Region/Country: Clare Valley, South Australia, Australia
Grape Varietal(s): Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec
Alcohol Level: 14%
Consumed: At home
Recommended By: Purchased at the winery itself, but some of Skillogalee’s offerings are available at the local liquor board store, the LCBO.Cost: $32 AUD
If you want a more detailed wine review, read on…
Bottle Presentation
A clear label that has all the information you need. As a sidebar, we noticed the term “Basket Pressed” showcased on the bottle. For those who don’t know, this means the winemaker(s) used a vertical press to extract the juice, as opposed to another type of press, such as a pneumatic press. We don’t often see it noted on wine label, mind you.
Appearance
Medium garnet.
Nose
Clean, pronounced intensity nose, with cooked black cherries, blackberry jam, black licorice/anise, black and white pepper, vanilla, allspice, cinnamon, bay leaf, and leather. We would consider this wine developing.
Palate
ry, full-bodied, high acidity, high tannins, and high alcohol. Pronounced flavour intensity with notes of white pepper, anise, wet stone, mint, blackberry, black plum, blueberry, bay leaf, cloves, wet wood, grilled tomato, green peppercorns, toast, and vanilla.
Finish
A medium length finish that turned slightly bitter.
Overall Impressions
A very good, food-friendly Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant blend, which evolved nicely as the wine opened up. Thus, we suggest decanting it for about an hour. It paired very well with two rather different pizzas. The Calabrese pizza brought out the wine’s spices and some red fruit (cranberries) and dark fruit (cassis). By way of contrast, the goat cheese and honey (non-traditional) Margherita pizza brought out menthol and blueberry notes.
The range of flavours make this a relatively complex wine, and its nose and flavours had great intensity. We found the alcohol noticeable and, thus, not quite as integrated as it could be. Although the screw top helps with the wine’s freshness, it may have slowed the integration of the alcohol. Overall, the Cabernets drinks very well right now, but you could cellar it for another couple of years, allowing it to further shine.
Rating: 90/10
E-Wine rating: 4/5. We would purchase two bottles of this Cabernet blend without hesitation; one to enjoy now and one to pour in 2-3 years.
Value: 3/5.