Souters 2009 Cabernet – Alpine Valleys
Allan Souter’s 2009 Cabernet is a truly remarkable wine – rich, full flavoured, generous on nose and palate with its ripe and lush fruit and decadently soft tannins. It’s harvested from a steep, well-draining north facing vineyard in Victoria’s Happy Valley where fruit ripening is slowed but well paced due to cooler bright summer days and moderately cool nights. This promotes more savoury notes: mint, clove, star anise. That’s balanced by a fat chocolatey bramble fruit palate of medium to full weight, making this a wine well suited to traditional drinkers. You could easily match this to Italian or Spanish braises, stewed meat and game, but it would go just as well with a flame-grilled rare steak with mushrooms and black pepper. A rare wine that’s well worth hunting down next time you travel into Victoria’s High Country.
Souters 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon – Alpine Valleys
Rich fragrances of deep cooked plums, blackberries and some gentle spice jump out of the glass immediately after cracking open the Souters 2012 Cabernet. As expected, it is more youthful than the 2009 wine, displaying soft, yet very dry tannins. These are only now beginning to integrate with the fruit – the whole package just needs time. While it does display a hint of mint and clove savouriness, this vintage is far more dominant in plum and blackberry primary fruit characteristics compared with the 2009 wine. Given its wonderful structure however, it’s destined to mature into a full bodied, rich and very silky wine; similar to the 2009 but with more conservative flavour profiles.
Souters 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon – Alpine Valleys
The 2014 vintage is a winner right off the bat. It’s medium bodied, boasts a friendly drink-now soft mouthfeel, and features gorgeous cherry flavours and fragrances weighted with well-balanced touches of plum and blackberry – but only just so. With the addition of chocolate and just a hint of tobacco this is without a doubt Allan Souter’s best cabernet to date. Very fine grippy tannins are present, yet they are satisfyingly integrated. Coming as a surprise and a delight, this wine has all the fruit brilliance and winemaking finesse to match some of the best examples from Beechworth and Yarra Valley vignerons. Most certainly a class-leading wine.
Direct to public by appointment:
390 Happy Valley Rd, Rosewhite, Victoria
Tel. 0429 400 343
Trade Sales: Australian Family Cellar Doors
Tel 0419 006 391
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