Aside from chardonnay, my long held view is that the Yarra Valley’s other great grape variety is the cabernet sauvignon. When it works it can closely resemble left bank Bordeaux in the style of wine produced. I tasted this wine in 2012 and in the first week of 2020. Observations follow.
2012 Tasting
2004 was a pretty good sort of year in the Yarra Valley, and at 8 years of age, it seemed the right time to look at Medhurst’s cabernet sauvignon from that vintage. Medhurst is a reasonably small producer, but it is well situated, not particularly far from Yarra Yering.
The 2004 vintage is between a medium and pronounced intensity ruby in colour and clear, rather than bright. It opens to a leafy aroma, with capsicum and green peppercorns initially evident, as well as what I would describe as pinched and taut blackcurrant fruit. It improved by the second day, showing more classic cedar and blackcurrant aromatics, in a Bordeaux like fashion.
The palate is dry, with initially quite firm tannins that felt a bit raspy, and initially shortish length set to dominant clove flavours and a bit of a hole in the middle palate. The next day things had improved substantially, with the wine relaxing to reveal some elegant medium length, blackcurrants and cedar. While I had my doubts initially, this wine proved itself enjoyable and, based on my observations, will benefit from, and improve with, decanting. Rating: Very Good. Reviewed: July 2012.
2020 Tasting
I half expected this wine to be over the hill, noting from experience that Yarra Valley cabernet sauvignon can take on an aged tea like character if cellared too long. But my expectation here was ill founded. This wine is now fully mature, and despite a hopelessly crumbly cork that did its job (just), it presented as a most superlative expression of Bordeaux left bank like cabernet sauvignon. An exhibition in length, balance and deliciously opulent cabernet sauvignon characters, this has unquestionably evolved into an outstanding wine. In my view, which is certainly not one popularly held in the region, cabernet sauvignon is the red grape for the times in the Yarra Valley. Rating: Outstanding. Abv: 13.5%. Price: mid $20s. Website: http://medhurstwines.com.au/. Reviewed: January 2020.
