Petaluma ANOVA Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

The makers call the 2021 vintage in Coonawarra “extraordinary.” They’re not the only wine producers smiling. Around Australia, the vintage has been widely celebrated, producing some truly memorable wines. You can add this elegant Coonawarra Cabernet to the list. Deep purple hues. Lifted violets, cassis, blackberry crushed leafiness – a distinctive, rousing autumnal-influenced, black fruited, floral aroma – greets the drinker. Medium-bodied doesn’t do justice in describing the finely tuned palate with flavours that melt and linger long. Red berries mingle with black, red earth, lifted herbals – oregano, thyme – with aniseed and gentle woodsy oak spice are lively and fresh, with the promise of a long life ahead thanks to a solid tannin frame. Still tight in frame when opened. Give ANOVA – love to know the meaning behind this name, does it stand for analysis of variance? – a splash or air and see it come alive.

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