St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Vertical spanning 3 Decades (Merce's Castle): Screwcap. Final wine of the flight and also the night. The youngest wine of the night and obviously we were drinking this way too young but good to find out how this was travelling. Deep and dark in colour, nose was rich displaying currant and mint. Wow this has power, it’s big and young. One drinker said it has “guts” and I tend to agree. It’s well balanced, juicy and smooth with a long finish of drying tannins. Its good but just needs time. This could develop into something special under the right cellaring conditions, but you may need to have plenty of patience for it to come together. Closest vintage in this tasting to the 2008 in my opinion but obviously way younger. One of the group picked this as their wine of the night … which in 20 years’ time could be mine as well!
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Young but with all the regular St Hugo Coonawarra notes. This will be awesome in another 5 years. Drinking well now but if you do like this wine with some age, its worth keeping.
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This is a tasting note for a experimental single vineyard St Hugo Cabernet 2016, under cork and a cleanskin.
Opaque ruby. Predominantly a youthful blackcurrant nose with a touch of peppermint; medium-plus bodied, bold blackcurrant fruit with drying raspy tannins. Has sufficient structure for medium-term cellaring. Plateau around 2030 onwards in a cool cellar.
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Look - it’s fine. Some clear varietal character with cassis and dark fruit, a bit of herbal lift and quality oak. It’s just by the numbers. Lacks individuality, interest or personality. This is Coonawarra cab. There’s a photo of this wine in the textbook.
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Classic Coonawarra cabernet. Black fruit, Cassis and cedar. Hints of nuts and cinnamon. Medium length with well integrated tannins. More elegant than powerful
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A little hard to wrap my head around this. The core of the wine is clearly good with some quality fruit. Still a bit young; lots of ripe fruit and spicy oak that still needs some time to integrate. Some scribes have made note of a strong peppermint character but I saw it more as spicy red fruits. Oak is present but will continue to settle. I did think the fruits were soupy early but they did dry out somewhat.
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cassis and black currant. fresh and juicy. well balanced, modest style. medium bodied, fine tannins. chocolate and vanilla in finish. comfortable with it super smooth texture, precision and balance.
JO 93, JH 95, HH 93
Ap 5/5, Ar 13/15, Palate 17/20, Overall 4+3/10 Total 92/100
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Nice dark Coonawarra Cab fruit (blackcurranty) with menthol and some earth and a touch of cedar. High acidity, nice mouthfilling tannins. Would be nice to see again in 10 years - looks to have potential to develop
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Nice elegant nose of herbaceous black fruits, freshly crushed eucalyptus leave, dry chalky earth and cedar. Palate echoed the nose. Unlike many Coonawarra Cab, It doesn’t have the acidity in its core, instead it has a refreshing trait, some hints of espresso beans and a clean finish. Very balanced Cab without the harsh tannins and raw power. Medium bodied and ready to drink now with minimal decanting. It should continue to evolve to develop more depth and smoothness for the next 3-5 years.
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A touch more than medium bodied. Cassis, plums, a slight raspberry tartness, with dried herbs and spice/cedar from the oak. A good level of acidity and a purr of tannin give it good structure. Just a slight whole in the mid palate, but overall a nice wine. I drank this alongside the 2012 vintage of the same wine which was drinking very well. I'd cellar the 2016 with confidence approaching it in 7-8 years of time.
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12/2/2023 - sthugo Likes this wine:
St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Vertical spanning 3 Decades (Merce's Castle): Screwcap. Final wine of the flight and also the night. The youngest wine of the night and obviously we were drinking this way too young but good to find out how this was travelling. Deep and dark in colour, nose was rich displaying currant and mint. Wow this has power, it’s big and young. One drinker said it has “guts” and I tend to agree. It’s well balanced, juicy and smooth with a long finish of drying tannins. Its good but just needs time. This could develop into something special under the right cellaring conditions, but you may need to have plenty of patience for it to come together. Closest vintage in this tasting to the 2008 in my opinion but obviously way younger. One of the group picked this as their wine of the night … which in 20 years’ time could be mine as well!
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2/19/2023 - Andrew67 Likes this wine:
Young but with all the regular St Hugo Coonawarra notes. This will be awesome in another 5 years. Drinking well now but if you do like this wine with some age, its worth keeping.
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8/14/2022 - wellsrd@grapevine.com.au wrote:
8/22 - Needs more time in the bottle.
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1/8/2022 - lightning wrote:
This is a tasting note for a experimental single vineyard St Hugo Cabernet 2016, under cork and a cleanskin.
Opaque ruby. Predominantly a youthful blackcurrant nose with a touch of peppermint; medium-plus bodied, bold blackcurrant fruit with drying raspy tannins. Has sufficient structure for medium-term cellaring. Plateau around 2030 onwards in a cool cellar.
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10/22/2021 - dan_smee wrote: 89 Points
Look - it’s fine. Some clear varietal character with cassis and dark fruit, a bit of herbal lift and quality oak. It’s just by the numbers. Lacks individuality, interest or personality. This is Coonawarra cab. There’s a photo of this wine in the textbook.
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7/3/2021 - Mr Ego Likes this wine: 92 Points
Classic Coonawarra cabernet. Black fruit, Cassis and cedar. Hints of nuts and cinnamon. Medium length with well integrated tannins. More elegant than powerful
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6/1/2021 - evanqian wrote: 91 Points
Moderate style, black currant, capsicum, a little eucalyptus hints. Medium bodied, fine grained tannins. M+ smooth finish with cedar, vanilla notes.
Ap 5/5, Ar 12/15, Palate 16/20, Overall 4+4/10
Total 91+/100
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4/20/2021 - ferronferron Likes this wine: 91 Points
Solid big bold Cabernet. Good balance. Liked it more I’m day 2. Fruit calmed down a bit, tannins. Could see lasting a few days.
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12/10/2020 - StewartWent Likes this wine: 89 Points
A little hard to wrap my head around this. The core of the wine is clearly good with some quality fruit. Still a bit young; lots of ripe fruit and spicy oak that still needs some time to integrate. Some scribes have made note of a strong peppermint character but I saw it more as spicy red fruits. Oak is present but will continue to settle. I did think the fruits were soupy early but they did dry out somewhat.
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11/13/2020 - evanqian wrote: 92 Points
cassis and black currant. fresh and juicy. well balanced, modest style. medium bodied, fine tannins. chocolate and vanilla in finish. comfortable with it super smooth texture, precision and balance.
JO 93, JH 95, HH 93
Ap 5/5, Ar 13/15, Palate 17/20, Overall 4+3/10
Total 92/100
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9/3/2020 - Alan Frazer wrote:
Gift from Emma when leaving NTT
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5/9/2020 - Bearbus Likes this wine:
Nice dark Coonawarra Cab fruit (blackcurranty) with menthol and some earth and a touch of cedar. High acidity, nice mouthfilling tannins. Would be nice to see again in 10 years - looks to have potential to develop
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12/8/2019 - Psdycp wrote: 90 Points
Nice elegant nose of herbaceous black fruits, freshly crushed eucalyptus leave, dry chalky earth and cedar. Palate echoed the nose. Unlike many Coonawarra Cab, It doesn’t have the acidity in its core, instead it has a refreshing trait, some hints of espresso beans and a clean finish. Very balanced Cab without the harsh tannins and raw power. Medium bodied and ready to drink now with minimal decanting. It should continue to evolve to develop more depth and smoothness for the next 3-5 years.
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9/8/2019 - Matt@5453 Likes this wine: 90 Points
A touch more than medium bodied. Cassis, plums, a slight raspberry tartness, with dried herbs and spice/cedar from the oak. A good level of acidity and a purr of tannin give it good structure. Just a slight whole in the mid palate, but overall a nice wine. I drank this alongside the 2012 vintage of the same wine which was drinking very well. I'd cellar the 2016 with confidence approaching it in 7-8 years of time.
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