Zema Estate Family Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
- 95
- $42
- Drink by: 2021-2036
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Family Selection represents the very best fruit the family can offer. The only thing that would suggest anything to the contrary is the price (not that I am suggesting they increase their prices – Nick will just spend it supporting some very dodgy football teams). The fruit comes from three family-owned vineyards, the fermentation and maturation regime was identical to that of the Shiraz with the difference being that this wine saw only French oak, no American.
Black/purple in colour, there is a really lovely, distinctly Coonawarra and Cabernet nose. Blackcurrants, cedar, tobacco leaf, chocolate, ripe plums, bergamot, black fruits and aniseed. Despite having five years under its belt already, this is still a most youthful wine, one with a long and promising future ahead of it. Indeed, longevity might be where this Cab has it over its Shiraz sibling. Good balance and fine tannins, bright acidity and excellent length. What really sells this wine to me is the gorgeously juicy black fruits which emerge towards the end of the palate. Expect the score to rise over time.
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.
