Stella Bella Skuttlebutt Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2021

Is it too early to start nominating your Best Value Wine of the Year? If not, my vote is in. The wine hails from Margaret River, is the archetypal Aussie red blend of Cabernet and Shiraz, and boasts a bit of a quirky name. Stella Bella’s Skuttlebutt 2021 Cabernet Shiraz is everything you want from a juicy, generously spicy, upfront, vibrant young red. It’s also blessed with unusually deep fruit concentration for the tiny $20 price tag. Deep, dark purple-black cherry in colour. Plum, bramble, blackberry, black pepper and dried herbs – with a touch of jalapeño piquancy – lift the bouquet. Smooth across the tongue, fuelled by super fine tannins and filled with delicious sweet fruited plumminess and blackstrap licorice with a just-picked red cherry bite. The finish with a lick of Margs’ distinctive, penetrating leafy/briar/mint speaks to the region and its premier grape variety, Cabernet. There’s so much to like and enjoy here, utterly slurpable.