94 POINTS
Tom Kline - Winepilot
Blackcurrant, gentle bell pepper and bay leaf lift from the glass on first smell. Sweet spice to follow in the form of cardamom and cinnamon, with some graphite and nori salt to follow. It’s elegant, complex and charming straight off the bat. Very good. The palate is medium bodied, intense and elegant, with graphite and mocha dancing around a core of blackberry and plum. The finish is wrapped up in firm, gravelly tannins and freshening acidity to a long, poised and mocha-laced close. Excellent balance, elegance and complexity on show here, with sound structure to go the distance in cellar. A great release.
94 POINTS
Nicole Bilson - Winepilot
The Scotsdale Cabernet Sauvignon is part of Howard Park’s Distinguished sites range, offering the chance to compare and contrast the same varieties from their Margaret River and Great Southern vineyards. This fruit comes from the cooler climate of the Abercrombie vineyard in the Mount Barker subregion of Great Southern, planted in 1976. The concentration of the old vines is evident from the first waft of aromas. There’s a bevy of juicy berries – strawberries, blueberries and blackberries with a hint of blackcurrant leaf. Beautifully integrated oak (25% new) adds subtle nutmeg. With a little more time in the glass, an exotic star anise unfurls. It’s very elegant on the palate, showing the contemporary preference for Cabernet with vibrance and fruit, rather than richness. There’s bright acidity and fine tea-like tannins. Pair with crispy roast pork and rosemary sea salt dusted crunchy potatoes.
94 POINTS
Cassandra Charlick - Winepilot
Mount Barker. Abercrombie Blocks 1A, 1B and 2. Handpicked, matured in French oak (25% new) for 18 months. Still so youthful and fresh on the nose. Elegant, herbal notes and black fruits – cassis, blackcurrant, and crushed peppy leaf. Boysenberry, barberry, crushed granite, salted plum notes, spring florals and saltbush. A compelling ocean brine note swells like the tide. Still tucked in its youth, there’s a lacy and fresh acidity on display that lifts up through the dense yet firm and finely polished tannins that roll over the tongue. The palate echoes the nose, and the oak is well selected and balanced with the fruit weight, offering a soft and powdery cacao tone leaning to milk chocolate on the finish. There’s a lovely red fruited savoury note on the palate too. It’s got it all. An expression of site and season. Impressive length and be sure to decant to loosen the grip a little and let this unfurl in its youth. I just keep coming back here. It’s compelling and beautiful. Delicacy, yet with firm conviction and weight behind its fine and almost ethereal exterior. Long and silken, it’s not a robust and boisterous Cabernet. 15 or more years.
92 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2021 Scotsdale Cabernet Sauvignon is consternated and leafy, with cassis, dried mint, cigar box and nori. In the mouth, the tannins are chewy and a little gritty but fade gently into the fruit prior to the finish. This means the impression of the wine is supple and classical. It’s old school in its own way, but it’s a well-handled, nice wine here. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
92 POINTS
Angus Hughson - Winepilot
Delicious purity to this 2021 Scotsdale Cabernet Sauvignon with effortless leafy cassis aromas enhanced by a fine cedar lift. A rich bed of well defined flavours are underpinned by chalky acidity and sinewy tannins. While understated right now it certainly has the integrity to build nicely in bottle.
91 POINTS
Kasia Sobiesiak - The Wine Front
Cherry pie and mint, pleasing fruity perfume, all at medium level – way in and out. A whiff of toast, spice and liquorice, slate tannins, a smidge of creamed coffee in the back. It’s all nice at this moderate intensity and weight and even flow.
90 POINTS
Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion
There’s good fruit here, but it is somewhat swamped in oak both in flavour and the drying tannins clipping the finish. In between, there’s spiced blackberries and currants, a hint of iodine, nutmeg and charred radicchio.
