Byron and Harold The Protocol Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
- 92
- $85
- Drink by: 2022-2032
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Margaret River and Cabernet Sauvignon is a match made in heaven. Fermentation was with a considerable proportion of whole berries, as is usual with this team. Twice daily pumpovers and then malo in barrel before maturation for 18 months in French oak, 30% of which was new. Dark maroon, this focuses on dark berry notes with cigar box hints, plums, dry vegetation, dry herbs and capsicum notes. Ripe with brambly touches, this is perhaps marginally leaner than some, but it makes up for it with good focus and excellent length. Good intensity throughout and plenty of grip on the finish. Surely a decade’s good drinking ahead of it.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
