Wynns Black Label The Original Cabernet Sauvignon 2024

The fruit for this iconic Coonawarra red comes from the top quarter of their terra rossa vineyards. This is the 69th release of this wine, a wonderful achievement. Maturation is for seventeen months in a mix of new and older French oak hogsheads and barriques. 28% of the oak is new, with the rest a mix of one, two and three-year-old oak. Needless to say, I don’t have the slightest clue about successfully marketing a wine, but it is beyond me why Wynns insists on bracketing this, at least on the basis of price, with a number of their other wines, while everything else seems to be on a more elevated level. Sure, wines like John Riddoch and Michael, not part of this release, are something truly special and deserve their lofty status, but for me, this one is never far behind and often sits alongside those wines. Except when it comes to the pricing. This is one of Australia’s great Cabernet values. All of which is not to suggest that Wynns should hike the price, but I do think that consumers should take advantage of it while they can. Dark maroon with a purple rim, this is a beautifully balanced and complete wine, utterly comfortable in itself. We have aromas of chocolate, blackberries, cold tea, cassis, tobacco leaves and mocha. There is deftly integrated oak and sleek tannins on a very long finish. This is a superb addition to the long line of wonderful Black Label Cabernets from Wynns. Love it. It will easily handle fifteen to twenty years in a good cellar, longer if you wish.

Ken Gargett

Contributor at Winepilot

Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.

Wine writer and critic