Bec Hardy Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

A warm climate Cabernet which succeeds in delivering serious flavour. After open batch fermentation for eight days on skins, the wine had ten months maturing in a mix of new and older French oak hogsheads. The colour here is a near opaque dark maroon. The nose weaves through notes of tobacco leaves, soy, beef stock, campfire hints and aniseed. A savoury style with good intensity, this is one for the long haul and will surely be even better in eighteen months. There is focus, drive, length and good grip with firm tannins and a flick of acidity. More formal than some of this team’s wines, but none the worse for that. It will provide attractive drinking for more than a decade.