La Kooki Local. Knowledge. Cabernet Sauvignon 2020

There’s a story behind this wine. It’s the epitome of a 21^st Century wine romance: two winemakers, one grape, one wine region. The winemakers fall in love, live and work in Margaret River, make some glorious cabernets from the region over a number of decades but never make one together . . . until now. “It’s taken 23 years for us to make cabernet together,” says the press release for La Kooki’s 2020 Local. Knowledge. cabernet sauvignon. If Eloise Jarvis (ex-Cape Mentelle, Fonty’s Pool) and Glenn Goodall (Xanadu) sound excited, I would suggest that they aren’t the only ones.

Grapes were sourced from the Rosa Park Vineyard and Paganin Vineyard (hence the Local. Knowledge. reference) from mature vines employing the Houghton selection clone (think low yields, small berries, intense dark fruits, low herbal characters). Bright and frisky in purple shades, this cabernet is a standout colour-wise. Clean vibrancy of fruit is its mantra in blueberry, red berries and a generous, all-pervading cherry influence. There’s also a hint of confection on the bouquet, quite tantalising and unusual in a cabernet. It’s a finely-delivered wine: quality tannins bring a just-so firmness and no more, oak (14 months in French oak barriques – 10% new) is a warm background note, and there’s real energy to the middle palate lifted by a gorgeous liveliness of cherry-berry fruits and well-tempered by spice. Cherry-pip tannin dryness completes what is one impressive cabernet.