Howard Park Wines A.S.W. Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2023

A.S.W. offers a departure from its usual wine philosophy with grapes sourced from across the Margaret River region rather than the Leston Vineyard, one of its past sources. It continues to be matured in French oak with some “significant” use of American oak. It works a treat, producing a particularly stylish and approachable Cab-Shiraz in 2023. So easy to enjoy right now – and I did! – in all of its black fruited, plummy, sweetly spiced goodness. Cabernet Sauvignon (61%) takes the lead role and brings a subtle background mix of light herbals, earth notes, and is paired well with a smooth, harmonious tannin structure. Oak presence doesn’t seem quite as much a feature here as in previous vintages, allowing the fruit a little more of a moment to show its class. But, while we might note the generosity of fruit, it remains well structured. Some things don’t change.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

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.

Wine writer and critic