Orin Swift Palermo Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

That label! What is that? Well, it’s a photo of a mummified priest taken in a 16^th Century catacomb in Palermo, Sicily. Believe it or not, the winemaker, Dave Phinney, thought of cabernet sauvignon when he saw it: “There is such a sense of power and dignity and reverence to the image that I thought that’s kind of how we think about great cabernet.” Can’t see it myself but I think your average wine marketer would take one look at it and say that it screams new gen drinker.

Cabernet sauvignon with a lick of petite sirah (2%) and syrah (1%), Palermo is as rich, textured and generous as it looks.  And at 15.2% alcohol, it’s in the fuller-bodied spectrum. The overriding impression is of a wine in building mode with the individual constituents still coming together. It’s definitely a keeper, capable of some extended ageing.

It bursts out of the glass in vibrant black and blue berry fruits, cherry, liquorice strap and vanilla pod. Svelte of texture, layered in flavour, Palermo delivers sure-footed fruit intensity, woody spices and high toast oak with ripe, savoury tannins which bring it all together on a long finish.

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