Robert Oatley The Pennant Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2018
- 96
- $105
- Drink by: 2024-2035
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Any day one gets to drink a flagship Margaret River Cabernet is a good day. This one hails from the renowned Wilyabrup sub-region. The grapes are put across a special individual berry sorting table, going from there to small vessels for fermentation on skins for up to six weeks. Fifteen months maturation follows, in ‘tight-grained, low toast, new and one-year-old French oak’. The final blend is a barrel selection. Dark maroon in colour, this is still youthful. The nose is an appealing mix of intensity and elegance, with some early complexity already evident. Roast meats, dry herbs, tobacco leaves, black fruits. There is even an alluring hint of blueberries if one looks closely. Silky, supple, very fine if ever-so-slightly grainy tannins. A wine of grace and power that is finely balanced, very long and with a fine line of saline acidity driving the wine. A stunning Cabernet which will easily give pleasure for a decade and more (during which time, the score could easily rise further).
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.
