WTN: 2001 Wynn's Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (Black Label)

14% alcohol
Very dark purple color with crimson rim. Attractive nose of cassis, dark plums, and polished leather. Tastes ripe and a bit jammy, amost sweet, with unobtrusive soft tannins that cut in only on the finish if the wine is held in the mouth for awhile. At it's peak?
Nice with smoked cheddar. Probably would be a good match to roast beef but delightful as a quaffer without food as well. One of my favorite inexpensive Cabs from anywhere. (The 2003 and 2004 versions are selling for about $15 per bottle at Carolina Wine Company.)

You can stop reading at this point if you don't take any stock in back labels, but I thought some of the info was educational:

"Wynn's Coonawarra Estate is the oldest established winery in Australia's most celebrated fine wine region--Coonawarra. Coonawarra owes its unique reputation as a wine region to a thin layer of rich red soil--"terra rossa"--which lies over a porous limestone, providing its vines with ideal drainage conditions to produce intensely flavored grapes. These grapes also benefit from a long, slow ripening season, due to Coonawarra's cool southerly climate." <terroir>
"The 2001 vintage in Coonawarra was very low yielding. Small intensely flavored berries made concentrated wine showing excellent Cabernet Sauvignon varietal characters of mint and cherry" <I didn't really pick up on any mint or eucalyptus> "This wine demonstrates the intensity and refinement characteristics of all Cabernet Sauvignon bottled under the Wynn's label." "Wynn's Coonawarra Estate--the Estate that made Coonawarra famous." <so>

Imported by PWG Vintners, Napa, CA.

Better on the first day than the second. I did really enjoy it the first evening.

This was the time Wynns were doing a lot of work in the vineyards, and even seemed to get caught up in the race for higher alcohols too. I believe the 02 and 04 vintages are big improvements over this wine (tasted 02, from memory), but being 'local', so to speak, I'll keep my powder dry for 2005.
regards,
Graeme

I'm ordering some bottles of the '04.

[Jenise]

Always been a favorite for value here too, JC. The wine sells for about half what it tastes like it should, and it ages like a more expensive wine, too. I'm sitting on a case of the 98; and Bill Spohn has vintages back to prehistoric times.

As Graham suggests, Wynn's Black Label is right back on form of late, especially with the 2004 vintage. 2003 was pretty smart, too, but, in the end, I did choose to only buy (a lot) of 2004. The 2005, when released, should be well worth seeking out, particularly, if the brand owner's, Fosters, continue with their current marketing strategy of discounting the guts out of this benchmark Coonawarra Cabernet.

My note on the 2004 follows for anyone's who's interested in picking up an absolute gem at a bargain basement price -

Dark ruby/purple. Excellent varietal/regional nose of weedy, herb-tinged blackcurrants, freshly turned earth, cedar, a little mint and that indelible mix of older US and French oak that has worked so well with this label over many years. Medium-bodied palate offering a smooth, velvety entry harnassing plenty of ripe blackcurrant/plummy fruit, a touch of black olive, subservient savoury/cedary oak input, beautifully judged acidty, ripe, marginally chalky, firmish tannins, terrific length and an expansive, authoritative finish that, collectively, achieves an Outstanding rating.

This is a perfectly balanced, high quality Coonawarra Cabernet with an excellent medium- to long-term cellaring potential that's drinking pretty darn well right now. Crystal-balling the mind-set of the winemaker, Sue Hodder, and the reported "corporate goal" of re-establishing this label to former glories, I suspect this Black Label is well and truly back on the "desired track" and worthy of a place in any serious wine lover's cellar. 92 points. Drink 2010-2018+. Fantastic QPR! 13.5% A/V

Thanks for your note, David. I ordered four bottles--probably should have gone for a case but my wine unit overfloweth.