d'Angelo 2002 R & R Cabernet Sauvignon April 05

A label I was unfamiliar with, the winery is actually located in Victoria but according to the back of the bottle it say, "the grapes for this wine come from a single vineyard, they are hand-picked from low yielding 40 year old vines in Langhorne Creek." The bouquet is certainly most attractive; showing vibrant floral scented clean berry fruit with inky black notes lurking below the surface and subtle menthol/mint. A youthful wine that needs time, everything is in the right proportion but the individual elements have not meshed yet. There is nothing sweet about this wine, the flavour spectrum is certainly in the off-sweet arena with cherry and dark berry fruit flavours. Oak treatment is sympathetic and has allowed the gloriously fresh fruit to speak and whilst the tannins are there, they are reasonably unobtrusive. It is certainly not a wimpy wine, or even a crowd pleaser, its solid and reasonably serious; this was reinforced as the wine had airtime, the tannins became more obvious and the harmony improved. Rated as Recommended with **** for value, in a couple of years the ratings should increase as the wine comes together. This is a wine that is worthwhile looking out for and it should retail for under $25.