Thompson Estate The Specialist Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
- 96
- $95
- Drink by: 2023-2038
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The Specialist? Well, it might refer to a Margaret River wine producer specialising in the region’s top red grape, but in this case it’s to do with the man who founded Thompson Estate, Peter Thompson. Apart from being a vigneron of note, Mr Thompson is also a cardiologist. The Specialist label is like the next step up wine-wise, a reserve wine without the name. The 2020 is one intense three-year-old. Aromas are concentrated and deep in dried herbs, black fruits, oregano, thyme, vanilla, cocoa, smoke. Noteworthy tannins frame the palate – sapid and fine – finishing on a note of astringent, dusty dryness. It’s playing its cards close to its vinous chest in that it’s not ready to reveal all just yet. That will come later. This is one wine with time on its side, a lot of time.
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.
