Robert Oatley The Pennant Frankland River Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

The Pennant collection comes from wherever the team can source fruit which achieves that standard. In this case, it is Cabernet hailing from Frankland River. In particular, a single vineyard in the region, the Justin Vineyard (even more specifically, Block 12 in that vineyard). Even then, the final wine comes from a careful barrel selection. The handpicked berries “run down an individual berry sorting table into small vessels to macerate and ferment on skins for 4-6 weeks”. The wine was then matured for another fifteen months in ‘new, tight-grained, low toast’ French oak. A vibrant opaque magenta hue. It is immediately obvious that we have seriously good concentration here. The perfumes include cherries, warm earth, leather, chocolate, bay leaves and black fruits. The wine is muscular, with good intensity for the full journey, and finishes with plenty of tannins plus fine silky tannins. A very attractive style of Cabernet from the region which promises good drinking for a decade.