Robert Oatley Limited Release Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
- 95
- $70
- Drink by: 2021-2035
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Robert Oatley Limited Release Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 – As previously indicated, a good vintage in the Barossa Valley can offer surprising results for Cabernet. You’d think it would not work, but then like so much in the wonderful world of wine, what we think rarely seems to matter. 2018 is clearly exactly the sort of vintage which works for Barossa Cab, based on this wine. It is surely impossible not to like.
Larry Cherubino’s expertise has transcended boundaries to produce a richly flavoured, finely balanced gem.
From vineyards in the Barossa and Eden Valleys, vines aged between 25 and 60 years, he used open fermenters leaving the juice on skins for between four and six weeks. The wine was then matured in new and one-year-old tight-grained, low toast French oak barriques.
The result is a wine of dark magenta, concentrated, rich and intense. Flavours of chocolate and black cherry mingle with spices, dry herbs and blackberries. It lingers beautifully through to very cushiony tannins. There is a warm, comforting plushness to this wine which should prove irresistible, though it can be put aside for a decade or two, if you prefer. A cracking Barossa Cabernet. Would prove a fun wine to use in a blind options game.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
