Kirrihill VSS Leasingham Cabernet Malbec 2021

A blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon and 13% Malbec – this includes 10% Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2024 vintage and 2% Malbec from the 2025 vintage, all perfectly legal, of course. The fruit comes from the Schrober’s Vineyard in the south of the Clare Valley. The Cabernet vines are over half a century in age. The wine spent eighteen months maturing in French oak, 20% of which was new. The colour is an inky dark maroon whilst the nose exhibits notes of cloves, leather, soy, spices, blackcurrants, tobacco leaves, aniseed and graphite. Good intensity, there is very good and persistent length here, through to fine-grained but firm tannins. The palate sees the emergence of chocolate and espresso notes. Good focus, this is very much in the austere, savoury mould. It should drink beautifully for at least the next decade.