2014 d’Arenberg The High Trellis Cabernet Sauvignon 12 Pack

95 POINTS

James Halliday - Halliday Wine Companion

Crushed and destemmed, open-fermented with heading down boards, 2-3 weeks on skins, matured for 22 months in French oak (10% new). Deeply coloured; a prime example of the affinity between McLaren Vale and cabernet, even if the flavours are slightly left field and the wine does best in cooler vintages. It is medium to full-bodied, and the cassis and black olive fruit does have dark chocolate notes, and persistent tannins. Gold medal Adelaide Wine Show '16.

92 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

Very serious wine for the money we have here. Blackcurrant and blackberry, truffle and cut flower stems, some aniseed and cedar. Medium bodied, tightly packed, and what you might call ‘minerally’ really, with thick tannin, cool acidity, and a grippy finish of fine length, featuring small berried black fruits infused with tobacco. Pretty bloody good.

91 POINTS

Josh Raynolds - Vinous

Lurid ruby. A suave, expansive bouquet evokes ripe black currant, cherry, pipe tobacco, cedary oak and musky flowers. Appealingly sweet and nicely concentrated, offering intense dark berry and spicecake flavors lifted by dusty mineral and floral notes. Juicy acidity sharpens a gently tannic, persistent finish that features lingering floral and peppery spice notes. This wine delivers outstanding value and I can't think of many, if any, California versions that can come near it for the price.

90 POINTS

Jeremy Oliver

Pungent and earthy with meaty aromas of dark plums dark chocolate and cassis preceding a long plush palate that steadily unfolds vibrant dark-fruited flavours and a firm crunchy spine

Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2014 The High Trellis Cabernet Sauvignon has a deep garnet color and quite an herbal nose with an earth-laced black fruit core and a touch of aged beef. The medium to full-bodied palate is chewy, hard and a bit green, the finish bitter.