Wolf Blass Grey Label Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2019

A wine not necessarily for this week . . . or perhaps even this year. What we have here is a muscular, structured red that demands more time in bottle. It simply isn’t ready just yet but when it is optimal, well, it will be worth the wait.

A rich purple-garnet in colour. The great Australian red blend presents with the scent of cassis, dried herbs, earth and an attractive leafiness. The latter continues on the palate joined by black fruits, cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate and vanilla. It’s lifted by a red liquorice spiciness and dried herbs. Oak is definitely a part of the story, both tannin-wise and flavour wise.

The blend was matured in 40% seasoned and 14% new French oak and 21% seasoned and 5% new American oak for 13 months. Once, the role of American oak would have been much higher. Blass started scaling back on that oak reliance in the 90s and the wines have been all the better for it. It loses points for the drying finish which jars but other than that, this wine will improve in the cellar.

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