2018 Moonambel Cabernet Sauvignon

colour

Dark purple with red-black hues.

aroma

Compelling and elegant aromas of cassis, fresh plum and bay leaf roll from the glass, mingling with other classic varietal Cabernet Sauvignon characters like cedar pencil shavings and freshly cut grass.

palate

Intense cassis, sour cherry and savoury dried herbs, with a powder-fine tannin structure that pulls blackcurrant long through the palate. This wine has finesse and elegance. A sensational wine, and as always the Dalwhinnie Cabernets age beautifully.

cellaring

Enjoy over the next three to eight years.

vintage

The growing season was temperate and dry with beautiful pollination and fruit set – this meant an exquisite crop of pristine grapes. Careful viticulture meant fruit was picked at optimum ripeness.

winemaking

The fruit for this wine was picked from the original contour and front gate vineyards on the Dalwhinnie estate, where fruit then fermented for 14 days in open top fermenters. Once approaching dryness the wine was pressed directly to French oak barriques for a 20 month maturation. Careful barrel selection was carried out to blend this wine before bottling.

region

Pyrenees

variety

Cabernet Sauvignon

analysis

• Alcohol: 13.5%
• pH: 3.42
• TA: 7.60 g/L

Filet mignon with Café de Paris butter sauce and steak frites.

Erin Larkin, Robert Parker Wine Advocate 2022

The 2018 Moonambel Cabernet Sauvignon is fleshy and bright in the glass, but the fruit—succulent as it is—is underpinned by a foundation of rock and minerals. The tannins are firm for sure; they frame the wine and assist the fruit in its journey across the palate. Polished yet with an open weave and complex in a black way, this is a bit of a marvel.

95

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front 2023

No Dalwhinnie reds reviewed here since the 2010 vintage. I’d almost forgotten they existed, given they were a stalwart of Australian fine wine back in the day. Anyway, here we are.

Black fruit, tobacco, cedar, aniseed and mint, dark chocolate. It’s fleshy, blackcurrant, cherry and blackberry, rich and ripe with a subtle leafy edge and savoury tobacco flavours, full gravelly/stony tannin, juicy acidity, and lavish crushed rock tannin on a finish of excellent length, some iodine/seaweed in the aftertaste. Very good.

94

Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion 2022

Hand-picked cabernet with small volumes of cabernet franc and merlot included. Batches were fermented on skins. Maturation and mlf conducted in French oak barriques (30% new) for 18 months. Classic Pyrenees cabernet all the way, albeit minus the usual level of eucalyptus/bay leaf. A very stylish cabernet (and friends) offering aromas of ripe black fruits, sour cherries, clove and leafy notes. Firm cabernet tannin structure, pulpy and still settling in when tasted 6 months before release.

94

Stuart Knox, The Real Review 2022

Deep and intense ruby red in the glass. Blackberry, cedar box and tobacco leaf aromas. Deep and weighty fruit on entry, chalky tannins grip with a firm hand but they remain in context with the fruit weight. Flows long and leaves a savoury iodine minerality lingering at the finish

92