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| Clairault Estate Cabernet Serious. Mega serious. |
13.5% $50
Source: Sample
www.clairaultwines.com.au
Clairault is changing. Or appear to be changing, with the wines resplendent in new labels (like this one) and apparently with a new direction. Hopefully they can tap into the form that won them a whole swag of trophies and assorted shiny things back in 2007/08.
This certainly smells the part, full of varietal, gravelly and slightly herbal Margaret River Cabernet character on the nose. That nose is quite addictive actually, all green peppercorns, roast beef and the like all suggesting serious fruit and wine craftsmanship, if just on the edge of ripeness. The palate too flirts with mixed ripeness, with a dusty, herbal warmish rich fruited middle before finishing off with quite gruff, coarse grained tannins and surprising warmth on the finish.
A stern and slightly minty, rawish wine, this is a serious 'don't come back for 5 more years' Cabernet that clearly shows that it was derived from some very tiny Cabernet berries indeed. The cellar is calling. 17.8/92++
2009/10 WCA Wine Journalism 'Young Gun; Wine Judge; Gourmet Traveller WINE and Breathe Hunter Valley magazine contributor; LattéLife & The Retiree columnist; National Liquor News tasting panellist and Chablis lover who fell into the liquor industry chiefly to buy cheap beer.
Clairault is for sale too apparently. Can't imagine it's cheap but hey, if you have a few lazy millions hanging around....
ReplyDeleteI had this in Hong Kong a few months ago. A very interesting experience.
ReplyDeleteIt started out tasting like generic red wine. Within a few minutes these amazing, complex tastes started to appear (leather, earth, etc) After about 30 minutes it started to go all bitter and then became undrinkable.
I guess it must have been badly handled in transit. My friend and I were absolutely loving it for a glorious 15 minutes.........
Odd. Sounds very much like a dud bottle. I did think it looked slightly harder on day 2 though.
ReplyDelete