Parker Coonawarra Estate First Growth 2019

I’ve often wondered about the choice of the First Growth name. It’s a lend from Bordeaux. First made in 1988, the maker clearly uses First Growth to indicate a wine made, to be, in their words, “without compromise.” It is sourced from the “very best” parcels of the Reynell Selection, a selection from vines that trace their ancestry back to South Australia’s first commercial vineyard planted by John Reynell in 1838. It’s another Parker Coonawarra Estate Cabernet with plenty of time on its side – it’s not going anywhere fast. It offers a veritable riot of herbal interplay in thyme, sage, oregano, a touch of jalapeño, in between black fruits and blackcurrant intensity. There’s a star turn from dense, concentrated tannins which contribute to a solid wall of structure and flavour. Solid, dense, quietly melding, working towards a very bright future.

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