Cabernet Challenge Round Up
The next installment in my quest to showcase just how great Australian wines are from all over the country has ended with what could be called a Margaret River whitewash.
Melbourne and Sydney attendees in my view were going to have a slight bias or favor towards the east coast contenders just as I honestly believed that the Perth contingent of patrons would vote for Margaret River more favourably.
My goal is not to make this a competition even though there is a table of results below, its more to showcase our entire country as a whole is making incredible wines, your personal preference doesn’t make a wine better than another.
Too often we get caught up in trying to declare a winner or praise some wine as the best. It’s about time we start to enhance our countries industry as a whole, there are so many incredible producers making wines of a high quality from all corners of Aus. My thoughts and views regarding cabernet are below, remember these are only my views and just because I believe them, it doesn’t make them right.
The whole east coast versus west coast narrative that circles around is not helping any part of the industry, claiming one side is greater than the other is like picking a favorite child, seems like a great idea but ultimately hurts everyone involved.
What we need to be doing is lifting up the industry, it doesn’t mean we need to claim every wine is great because it isn’t, there is a lot of average to good wine out there. To me showcasing the greats should be inspiring to the rest of the industry, a pillar to strive to emulate, lifting the whole industry to a higher level. We are blessed with regions that offer such a diverse range of styles and varietals, and whilst some may make higher quality versions of a grape don’t discount other regions.
Lets look at the cabernets we showed, 6 from Margaret river where majority of them were straight cabernet or cabernet and 1 friend. Head over to the Yarra Valley and you saw a more Bordeaux style of Cabernet, using up to 5 grapes in the one wine. From my observations and notes on the east coast the wines from the Yarra and Coonawarra performed much better than they did in the Perth event. Similarly in Peth the top 6 wines were all of the Margaret River wines, where as the east coast wines were lower in the preferences.
It seems that consumers are more drawn to wines represented from regions closer to where they live, where the wines are more readily available. There is however exceptions to this as well, with some of the Margaret River wines taking top spots in Melbourne and podium finished in Sydney. My view is that for Cabernet as a single grape, Margaret River showcases the greatest example of the grape, the maritime influence alongside warm days and cooler nights lets the fruit hit optimum flavor and concentration. The Yarra Valley wines showed the most Bordeaux style, where you can see the fleshy mid palate provided by the merlot, a totally different style of wine. One that alone is one of Australia’s greats, a world wide recognized wine of the highest quality. It was great to see at least 5 winemakers attend the multiple events and it was interesting to see their preference for the wines from the eastern states, picking the Mount Mary as their favorite or in the top 3. To me each wine was so different, no two were the same and each showed just why they are considered the top of the class in cabernet.
The results were similar for Sydney and Melbourne with the Wynns John Riddoch performing very well against the Margaret River barrage of bottles. Heading west the John Riddoch just didn’t hit the same form as it did on the east coast. The Vasse Felix Tom Cullity and Woodlands Xavier featured highly in all states, showing the class and quality of these Australian icons of industry. The Cullen was divisive, either being absolutely adored or just so so, there was not much middle ground for this wine, perhaps showing that drinking these with age is the way to go. It was also one of the lightest in style, highlighting a different approach from Vanya and her team.
For those interested in the actual results please see below, there was so little between the wines in this particular challenge, with only a handful of points separating the top 8! Remember that just because a wine is lower down this ladder, it does not mean it is an inferior wine, its only 120 peoples opinion after all.
- Xanadu Reserve 2018
- Woodlands Xavier 2018
- Vasse Felix Tom Cullity 2020
- Moss Wood 2020
- Cullen Diana Madeline 2020
- Wynns John Riddoch 2019
- Mount Mary Quintet 2019
- Voyager Estate MJW 2020
- Grosset GAIA 2022
- Yeringberg Cabernets 2019
- Penfolds BIN407 2022
- Yarra Yering Dry Red No1 2021
As with all of my challenge series of events to me it’s more about showcasing what we do as an entire industry rather than a which state or region produces better. We can get caught up always comparing and trying to find a winner, when if we succeed as a nation then every winery can thrive. Appreciate each wine for what it is, remember that what you think is great may be vastly different from what I think is great. But lets be sure to always remain respectful and kind, after all its just fermented grape juice.
The Wine Animal Is Out!