Winemaker Sarah Pidgeon
Wine Analysis
Enclosure : Screw Cap
Peak Duration: Enjoy on release, or cellar carefully for 10+ years. As a reference the inaugural release, the 1982, is still drinking beautifully
Maturation: 16 months in new (31%) and seasoned French oak hogheads (65%) and barriques (35%).
OVERVIEW
First made in 1982, the John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon was conceived as a flagship wine for Wynns. John Riddoch himself was a true visionary. Amongst his many achievements are the building of the Wynns Gabled winery and the establishment of the Coonawarra Fruit Colony. John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon is made in small quantities from the best available fruit grown on the estate's extensive Cabernet Sauvignon plantings in the heart of the terra rossa soil It has become a definitive Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, made only in years when grapes of extraordinarily high quality are available, using less than one percent of the top-quality Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
VITICULTURE
A very warm and dry spring led to early flowering, veraison and harvest. The warm November temperatures were ideal for good berry set, necessitating extensive green harvest (thinning) for quality. The grape ripening months of February and March were influenced by a cold water “upwelling” off the coast, but overall, it was a warmer- than-average Coonawarra vintage. We describe our 2016 wines as being at the “fuller” end of our long-term Wynns Coonawarra flavour and style spectrum.
NOSE
Pure, focused and refined. Beautifully balanced acidity and freshness ensure that this wine will live gracefully for 30 years .
FLAVOURS AND PALATE
Plush and juicy ripe cassis flavours combine with a mocha like creaminess from French oak. Beautifully textured. A fine tannin line frames powerful fruit, providing all the hallmarks of a great John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon for the cellar.
(2016)
🏅 Andrew Caillard – Master of Wine 100 Pts
Deep crimson. Lovely pure blackcurrant elderberry herb garden aromas with hints of espresso/ roasted chestnut notes. Beautiful concentrated wine with blackcurrant elderberry chinotto herb flavours, fine-grained and plentiful yet vigorous tannins, superb mid palate richness and integrated roasted chestnut/ cedar oak notes. Finishes chalky firm with a long inky/ graphite plume. Made for the long haul. Powerfully expressive yet unforced wine with superb vinosity, richness, density and volume. Superb. The fruit derives from the V&A (Victoria & Albert) and Nursery Vineyards, both located on classic terra-rossa soils. From a dry, mild to warm growing season. Wait a few years to let it unfold, 2025-2050.
🏅 James Halliday 98 Pts Gold
From a tiny fraction (about 1% ) of Wynns' cabernet crush handled with kid gloves in the specialised winery. Densely coloured, its amalgam of cassis and bay leaf is held within a fine web of ripe tannins, the excellent vintage also helping shape a cabernet of the highest class.
🏅 James Suckling 95 Pts
This is a very impressive and regal cabernet with a rich array of ripe blackcurrants, mulberries and blackberries on offer, as well as a cedary and gently chalky edge. There’s a very rich and powerful core of deep-set fruit, as well as a thread of rich chocolate flavor and a very polished, assertive core of tannin that holds super long. Try from 2022. Screw cap.
🏅 Decanter - Jane Anson 95 Pts
A smooth, seductive and deeply satisfying Cabernet Sauvignon with a creamy texture but delivering the savoury edge that makes Cabernet such a great food wine. Plenty of chocolate, menthol and eucalyptus notes that make the wine enjoyably polished without being overblown. The tannins are softened at this four year old point, nicely integrated into the black fruits and there is no question it will power through another decade or more at this level. With a history that dates back to 1896, this was the first winery to open in Coonawarra and has been in the Wynn's family since 1951. 2020 is the first year on the Place de Bordeaux. 3.6pH.
🏅 Jancis Robinson 17/20 Pts
Very dark and glowing crimson. Intense and concentrated. Really fine ripe fruit almost disguises a massive amount of tannin. Very well made with a great future. The opposite of syrupy, with lovely fruit.
(2018)
🏅Andrew Caillard – Master of Wine 99 Pts
Deep crimson. A wonderfully evocative wine. Fragrant pure blackcurrant, dark cherry aromas with integrated praline mocha, roasted chestnut notes and touches of sage and violet. Beautifully concentrated wine with voluminous blackcurrant, dark cherry, mulberry fruits, plentiful fine grainy al dente tannins, superb dark chocolate, mocha, espresso complexity and underlying chinotto sage notes. Finishes grainy/ cedar firm with pure cassis, kirsch notes and a plume of extract. Elegant, powerful and expansive with the structure and balance for long term aging; the fruit, tannin, oak and acidity are beautifully integrated.
🏅Huon Hooke 98 Pts
With a very deep, brooding purple/red Colour, it has a remarkably complex, savoury bouquet of beautifully integrated fruit and oak, very ripe cabernet aromas with no leafy herbal accents and lots of dark fruit, blackberry and cassis interwined with cedar, smoky bacon and graphite nuances. Almost decadenly rich and fleshy, it's full-bodied and loaded with extract, the abundant tannins supple and superbly knitted into the fabric of the wine. A glorious cabernet.
🏅Ray Jordan 98 Pts
Oh my, this is such a good wine – as good as any that have been released under this label. It is remarkable that a wine of such finesse and refinement should also have such power and drive. But that’s Coonawarra in a good year, managed with first rate winemaking after the viticulturist has delivered the fruit. Has a slightly liqueur cherry aroma with cool leaf and tobacco leaf nuances. The palate is sublime with the fine weave of tannin, fine grained oak and silky-smooth fruit. As you might expect it is still a little shy and closed but decanting will give you a glimpse of what it will become.
🏅James Suckling 94 Pts
Very pure and pretty aromas of currants and black cherries follow through to a medium to full body with very fine tannins and cedar, chocolate and light spearmint in the aftertaste. Pretty finish.
