Seneca Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

This is the first release from Seneca Vintners, a collaboration between Stuart Richardson and Will Shelmerdine. With fruit sourced from a single vineyard in Nagambie Lakes, it showcases just how good Victorian Cabernet Sauvignon can be. 

In the glass it’s a bright, sparkling ruby that screams ‘drink me’. The fruit is dark and juicy – mulberries and black currants over spicy star anise. With time in the glass or a quick decant, dried violet and rose petals come to the fore.

This is gateway cabernet sauvignon – it may just convert the non-cab drinkers in your social circle, with its medium body and fine-grained tannins. It’s juicy on the palate too with some tangier red fruits alongside luxuriously slow-cooked quinces, and a hint of peppery tomato leaf on the finish. Pair it with a hearty minestrone- perfect winter drinking.

Nicole Bilson

Wine Critic at Winepilot

Nicole loves wine. So much so that she gave up a successful career in Pharmacy, perfected her spitting technique, and moved from sunny Queensland to the wine-drenched laneways of Melbourne. Stints in hospitality, wineries, retail, sales and marketing filled the next few years while Nicole built her knowledge and searched for the right path. She completed the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Diploma in 2016 and became a certified WSET Educator the following year. She now juggles a number of roles including teaching people about wine, curating wines lists for restaurants and bars, judging in Australian wine shows and, of course, writing. In 2016 she won the Negociants Working With Wine writing award and has since contributed to Gourmet Traveller WINE, Halliday Wine Companion Magazine and Nourish Magazine.

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