Parker Estate 95 Block 2021

Combines Cabernet Sauvignon (74%) with Petit Verdot (26%) and the two Bordeaux grape varieties seem to really hit it off. The outstanding vintage helps, as does the tannin management. Petit Verdot can be a bit of a repeat offender when it comes to high, aggressive tannins, but here the tannins are ripe and savoury and in total harmony. Blackberries, cinnamon, clove, bay leaf, red earth and cigar box, smoky, woodsy spices abound. The 95 Block blend, sourced from a sub-section of Parker Estate’s Abbey Vineyard, arrives as a complex whole, well-rounded and integrated. The potential for further ageing is incredible, to put it mildly, but that dusty, earth, smoky spiciness and solid fruit appeal is mighty tempting now.

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