Howard Park Abercrombie Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
- 96
- $150
- Drink by: 2022 - 206
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Abercrombie reminds us of the delight that comes with a multi-regional blend. Before the rise and rise of the distinguished single vineyard site, there was the very Australian concept of the multi-regional red. Here, Margaret River (53%) and Mount Barker (47%) join forces.
Opens quietly and succinctly – there’s a theme happening here – which makes it more of a still-waters-run-deep kind of wine. Abercrombie requires, demands your attention.
Tight-knitted and tense, it reveals a world of black fruits – blackberry, black olive, blackcurrant – and wild red berries. That wildness lingers with Aussie bush, bracken, briar. Flavours move up a notch with the introduction of dark chocolate, licorice, roasted nuts, vanilla bean. Emerging savouriness. Rounded tannins noted, new French oak, too.
Tight and firm, it’s learning to unwind. . . slowly.
Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.
