critic reviews
Inky plum colour, damson, hoisin plum, cocoa bean, this is young and deeply concentrated right now, a ton of smoky campfire and grilled rosemary, muscular and fairly subdued but the bones are here. Just needs time to soften and open. Sue Hodder winemaker.
The 2022 John Riddoch Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon is routinely a magnificent wine, a bastion of age-worthy Cabernet, framed in the Coonawarra paradigm of ripe fruit and ferruginous tannin. Here, the 2022 tastes bloody, meaty and chewy, with sweet roasted marrow and black exotic spices. Everything about this vintage is black. The wine is brooding and intense, yet it is also pure and focused; blackberry, pomegranate molasses, cassis, sumac and aniseed all mingle among the sea of structuring, cocoa-powder-esque tannins. It's a thing of inchoate beauty, one that will unfurl over many decades to come. 13.5% alcohol. Sealed under natural cork.