Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc 2015

The decision to re-release the 2015 red blend is deliberate. The year, a cool vintage, is intended as a comparison with the new release 2021 Whalebone Vineyard red blend, also from a cool year. The comparisons are there (minus, of course, the role of Cabernet Sauvignon in this instance), especially the juiciness of the fruit which is still very evident and quite fresh. This is a most re-assuring sign in a 10-year-old Aussie red. Take in the aromatics: violets, sage, anise, a whisper of bay leaf, earth and crushed herbs with black fruits plum and cherry. It’s an enticing start, one mixed with freshness and a slow developing complexity which still has a way to go on its journey. There is a sweetness of fruit on the palate, a pepperiness and strong herbal influence with an incense-like vanillin oak feature. Many will consider the mix of freshness with age a good reason to broach now. And why not?

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic