Tasting Note

                 Sydney Time

           Copyright © Ric Einstein 2008

Penley Estate 1998 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon May 07

The bouquet is typical of a nine-year-old, high-quality Coonawarra Cabernet with perfumed notes and mint emerging. Loads of dusty tannins combine with deeply-seated fruit and fresh acid to form a full-bodied, firm, solid and tight wine that is seamless, and has a well-developed, harmonious complexity. Blackcurrant, posted coffee oak, mint and herbaceous notes blew off to leave a leafy, minty, savoury palate that finished with terrific persistence. Coonawarra Cabernet at its finest, rated as Excellent now and the rating will no doubt improve as the wine matures around 2011 and beyond; its great stuff and should be long-lived.