Howard Park Scotsdale Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

Mount Barker. Abercrombie Blocks 1A, 1B and 2. Handpicked, matured in French oak (25% new) for 18 months. Still so youthful and fresh on the nose. Elegant, herbal notes and black fruits – cassis, blackcurrant, and crushed peppy leaf. Boysenberry, barberry, crushed granite, salted plum notes, spring florals and saltbush. A compelling ocean brine note swells like the tide. Still tucked in its youth, there’s a lacy and fresh acidity on display that lifts up through the dense yet firm and finely polished tannins that roll over the tongue. The palate echoes the nose, and the oak is well selected and balanced with the fruit weight, offering a soft and powdery cacao tone leaning to milk chocolate on the finish. There’s a lovely red fruited savoury note on the palate too. It’s got it all. An expression of site and season. Impressive length and be sure to decant to loosen the grip a little and let this unfurl in its youth.  I just keep coming back here. It’s compelling and beautiful. Delicacy, yet with firm conviction and weight behind its fine and almost ethereal exterior. Long and silken, it’s not a robust and boisterous Cabernet. 15 or more years.