Description
Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 from Coal Valley, TAS
This is the estate’s flagship red and the 2013 was aged for a whopping 3 years in oak making this a completely atypical wine in the vineyard’s history. From the Domaine A vineyard in the Coal River Valley half an hour from Hobart (just up the road from the well known village of Richmond).
I may be biased because I worked here as a cellar hand during vintage 2006 and fell completely in love with the area and its wines but, for my money, Domaine A is the best Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in Australia. It also makes the Cabernet that is most Bordeaux-like in Australia, and yet quite different too because the purity of the light and lack of summer rain in this part of Tassie (Hobart, remember, is the second driest state capital in Australia!) results in a fruit intensity that most vineyards in Bordeaux could seriously only dream of!
13.9% ABV.
Rated 4.2 out of 5 on Vivino across all vintages.
A remarkably long-lived vintage of an already long-lived wine, the 2013 is big, textural and voluptuous. The nose is intense and oak-driven: blackcurrant, caramelised rhubarb and tomato leaf lead under layers of warm tobacco and dark chocolate. A full-bodied, savoury palate shows surprisingly tight, chalky tannin (even after three years in oak and seven in the cellar) that promises great things for those with the patience to mature it further.