2021 Terre à Terre Crayères Vineyard Cabernet Franc

96 POINTS

Andrew Caillard MW

Medium crimson. Lifted cassis, dark chocolate, violet aromas with lovely inky complexity. Beautifully balanced and seductive palate with ample cassis, red plum, hint strawberry fruits, fine lacy/ slinky textures, very good mid-palate volume/ viscosity and well integrated acidity. Medium bodied almost Burgundian in style with a superb ethereal lift. Lovely fruit complexity and mineral length. Drinking brilliantly well. Drink now or keep for a while. 14.5% alc 96+ points

95 POINTS

Tim White

Super fragrant — pristine raspberry leaf and assam. Uncluttered. Blond tobacco, gentle Aussie sous bois, a sniff of gentle pepper spice. And a kind of smoked tea, pie crust character. Some cocoa. Fruitcakey on the palate, but not too moist. The tannins are tight and brick dusty dry, spun into the plum and pippy juiciness. The oak has a coffee crema, crumble influence and is so in tune with the fruit. Wouldn’t mind seeing this again in a few years. Or tomorrow.

95 POINTS

Shanteh Wale - Halliday's Wine Companion

This is 91% cabernet franc and 9% shiraz matured in old French oak barriques and foudres for 14 months. Red fig, black cherry and rhubarb. Pink peppercorn, damson plum and cinnamon. Oak inserts itself with a cocoa nib bitterness and espresso crema. This is a bit of an enigmatic wine with a filigree of fine but weighty tannins and a mix of sour red fruits and exotic spice. A wine with detail and complexity and of superb value.

94 POINTS

Patrick Eckel

A blend of 91% Cabernet Franc and 9% Shiraz that was aged in old oak barriques and foudres for a little over 12 months. A vibrant medium red in terms of colour with a nose of red cherry and a touch of brambly wild strawberry. The palate is medium bodied with a smokey, earthen undertone, black cherry fruit shines on the mid palate with crunch of tannin and commanding length that is both drying and deeply varietal. An impressive representation of Cabernet Franc that is fun to drink whilst still cutting a classy figure in the glass.

94 POINTS

Mike Bennie - Wine Business Magazine

A wonderful drink finding a stellar balance between the blueberry, mulberry fruit character inherent and the riff of sage leaf, bay leaf, bush herbal element that seems a calling card of Wrattonbully Cab Franc. There’s a succulence to texture, a freshness inherent in the wine – it lifts on bright acidity and finds rails of sandy tannin to reset the palate with each sip.

94 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

I’m cray cray about Cabernet Franc. Red fruit, rosewater, a little mint chocolate, light nutty oak. It’s medium-bodied, red fruit and some darker berries, hazelnut, a fresh feel to it, with well-settled acidity, fine chalky tannin grip, and a finish of excellent length. All just so. Beautifully made, and lovely to drink.

93 POINTS

Ken Gargett - WinePilot.com

The seventh release of one of Australia’s finest examples of Cab Franc. The team have added 9% Shiraz to ‘lift the middle palate’ in 2021, which was a mild but exceptional year. The Wrattonbully vineyard was planted in 2008 at a density similar to that of those in Saint Emilion. The wine spent 14 months in old French oak, both barriques and foudres. 2,150 cases made. Magenta/purple. There is a leafy, aromatic nose, fresh and elegant, with notes of spices, red fruits, bay leaves and raspberries. Finely balanced, there is a richness with depth and intensity and impressive length plus firm tannins. Drink over the next five to eight years.

93 POINTS

Andrew Graham - ozwinereview.com

Let’s get stuck into the sample pile for 2024, eh! The Terre à Terre Crayères Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2021 is Xavier Bizot & Lucy Croser’s Wrattonbully Franc, sourced from the close-planted, low-trellised Crayères Vineyard. You know what? The Franc from here is often the most interesting wine. There’s 9% Shiraz in the blend, too, which I don’t mind at all. Anyway,t this coiffed, silken, slick and clever, treading a Cab Franc line that sits between some Right Bank Bordeaux heavyweight and a fresher mod Cab Franc style. I like it. Redcurrants, a leafy peppery streak, and oak tannins. It feels a bit unformed, a bit too young and oak-rich, but this has quality lines. It’s a pup, with a just-released-from-barrel richness, over the top of the full-bodied and quite tannic raspberried palate. Could it be better with a little less ripeness? I dunno, but there is plenty to like for the dollars here.