Luminosa Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Winemaker, Luke Joliffe, is just a little excited by this wine or possibly more excited than usual. It is the first Luminosa introduced to maturation in large foudre and, with it comes some lovely balanced acidity. Can we necessarily point to the role of the foudre as a big quality factor? It’s actually not essential. Luminosa, year in year out, represents the top of the Cabernet tree for the maker, and the 2023 is no different. Deep, dense purple hues. Aromas dusty and earthy, in beautifully lifted aromatic violet, peppery spice, jalapeño, black fruits and herbals. Strong in regional Cabernet flavours with a palate that is taut and well composed in fine, dense tannins. It must be said that it displays the usual degree of good, solid structure and the intent is that we will all show some patience and give this wine the time it deserves. A towering, Empire State-like wine with a middle palate of pure velvet but it is still early days. It has so much more potential in-built and budding.

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