Yalumba The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
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Robert - Decanter
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Dark cherry red with a crimson hue. The bouquet is elegant and inviting, notes of cedar and licorice combine with rich, ripe cassis, violets and the quintessential Coonawarra "sea spray" note. The palate opens with a burst of cassis and mocha. It is structural, yet generous, dark and brooding with restraint and the promise of enjoyment for years to come. The tannins are sublime, giving an insight to the ageability of this wine, yet in its youth, it is enjoyable as an elegant full-bodied red wine.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
From vines planted in 1975 on Coonawarra’s distinctive terra rossa soil, this vintage of Menzies is aromatic and spicy, showing a touch of bottle age. There are layers of aromas, from plum preserves and cherry cordial to menthol, bay leaf, vanilla bean and mushroom. The palate is evolving beautifully: the silky fruit knitted with raspy and taut but fine tannins. Drink now with fatty cured meat or until 2030.
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James Suckling
This has attractive notes of spiced currants, blueberries, chocolate and violets. The palate has a taut feel with a composed, dense and slightly creamy edge to the fresh, fine and long tannins. This is a very fresh, youthful and focused expression of classic cabernet sauvignon. All here. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon is very good. A savory, complex, herbal and full throttle Cabernet, it has svelte elegance and tannic swagger in equal measure. This is very licorice-y in its expression, with salted raspberry, mulberry, aniseed and clove to close. Smart. It matured in a combination of French and Hungarian hogsheads for 22 months. The portion of Hungarian oak may help to explain some of the subtle, slightly offbeat spice characters through the finish. Sealed under natural cork.
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Decanter
Good berry fruit flavours, with violets, spice and savoury notes on the mid palate. Spiciness, vanilla and nice acidity on the finish holds the freshness.
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Wine Spectator
Plush and elegant, delivering polished red cherry, raspberry and milk chocolate notes, plus generous savory herbs and tobacco. Shows a hint of fresh mint on the finish.
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Established in 1849, Yalumba is Australia’s most historic family-owned wine company showcasing the best of the Barossa and South Australian wine regions. Fiercely independent and extremely progressive through the generational ownership by the Hill-Smith family, their longevity and success are a result of patience, collaboration, and forward-thinking. Yalumba is a leader in the industry with the foresight to embrace the natural terroir to craft wines with individual character and a sense of purpose, as well as a spirit to reinvest in the land upon which it operates. Yalumba is committed to sharing stories of provenance gathered over 175 years of history of family winemaking.
Arguably the single most famous wine region in Australia, the Barossa includes both Barossa Valley and Eden Valley, making it one of the only areas in Australia to have neighboring warm and cool climate growing conditions. Yalumba is privileged to have access to some of the oldest vineyards in the world in Barossa Valley, including 1889 bush vine Grenache and 1908 Shiraz. They are committed to growing premium quality fruit reflecting distinctive varietal characters of the region.
Yalumba also operates the Southern Hemisphere's only fully operational Cooperage, crafting bespoke oak barrels that elevate the wines aged within them. While the beginnings of the Yalumba Cooperage remain a mystery lost in time, coopering has been a proud tradition at the winery for more than a century. Their coopers have been performing and perfecting their craft since around 1890. In the Nursery, Yalumba is a global leader in wine innovation, growing, evaluating, and supplying quality grape vines to the Australian wine industry. Yalumba has developed strong relationships with leading grapevine programs from around the world and have exclusive access to certain new varietals in Australia. This gives the Yalumba viticulturists and winemakers the unique opportunity to evaluate and develop new or emerging varieties before they are sold.
Yalumba continually strives to reduce their impact on the environment, stay involved in the community, and make great wine with minimal intervention in the vineyard and in the winery. They are committed to sustainable practices, with the belief that the healthier and more biodiverse the vineyards are, the better the wines will be. Yalumba has been developing its own sustainable viticulture program since the mid-1990s, promoting the economic production of quality grapes. For every acre of vineyard Yalumba own, they have at least one acre of native vegetation. All Yalumba wines are crafted with wild yeast, are 100% vegan, and are made with the least intervention possible but with as much knowledge, confidence, and expertise as possible.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Distinguished by a thin, subterranean band of crumbled, red clay loam, Coonawarra is a fairly flat, otherwise unobtrusive region with a cool Mediterranean climate, actually not dissimilar to Bordeaux.
In Coonawarra, this unique layer of red clay is called, "terra rossa" and gets its color from iron oxide. The terra rossa soil overlies soft, penetrable limestone, in a continuous area that is part of the Limestone Coast zone of South Australia. This uncommon layering of soils creates a substrate that is both well draining and at the same time, offers good water retention to support vine roots through dry summers.
Not surprisingly, Coonawara experiences great success with the Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but also Shiraz. However Cabernet reigns superior and accounts for half of the Coonawarra harvest each year. Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon develops powerful, yet polished tannins, ripe, red berry fruit and often sweet herb or dried mint qualities. The region has an increased focus on the individual expressions of single vineyards.