1990 Wendouree Cabernet Malbec

Community Tasting Notes (4) Median Score: 95 points

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  7/25/2021 - yodamark Likes this wine: 95 Points

  Opening old Wendouree is always an experience. I had this wine only a few months back and that bottle was a little better. As typical it was very hard to pick it as 31 years old. This one had elements of spearmint/menthol and of Pyrenees eucalypt and Domaine A sweet mintiness but also very Clare Valley. Immediately called as Wendouree by Lady Frenulum. He was a bit out on the year but a commendable effort
  ( which is about time for all the energy, guidance, experience, teachings, lectures, tasting sessions, exams, classes, and general assistance he has gotten from me over 20 years. Many others would have given up on him but as he is family i remain eternally optimistic he will reach at least 25% of Yodamarks level. He is a long term Work in Progress)
  Anyway, back to this, the wine continued to richen, fatten and flower with more exotic dark red/black spicy fruited nose and longer fuller palate. Our mistake of course was drinking it too early and non decanted and too cold. but Si c'est...A glass had the next day exposed a fully open rich sweet minty Wendouree CM in its prime but clearly with a long time to go. Superb.

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  11/5/2020 - yodamark Likes this wine: 96 Points

  This was simply a stunning tasting experience from the masters of long lived Clare Valley wines - Wendouree. One of their great vintages and the CM is overlooked from its siblings the straight cabernet and the Shiraz. But is a favorite of mine that i have lots of in the cellar. I had a 1990 Shiraz from Magnum in 2018 in Bordeaux in France ( courtesy of the Dalwhinnian Theorist) and its was stunning. Frankly miles ahead of 1990 Grange or Hill of Grace. So it was pleasing to see the CM hold its head up high and compete with its stablemates . ( commendable mention to a 96 straight Cabernet also consumed - 94 pts) . It was extremely deep brooding crimson with hardly any aged coloring's defying its 30 years. it was fresh, gently minty and fragrant and smacked with dark red berry exotic fruitiness on the nose overlaid with a some gentle spices. And the palate repeated the same theme. Youthful, long, fat, rich and if tasted blind almost impossible to pick as 1990. Then we have come to expect nothing less from Wendouree. My third favorite wine of the night over the 94 Gia Chard and 93 Bannockburn Pinot. what wine!!!! Give it 20 more years in the cellar yet

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  6/14/2017 - CamWheeler wrote: 91 Points

  SLDS June 2017 #2: Chocolate, mint, blackcurrant, kirsch and earth. The palate still shows quite a mass of tannins, though the fruit has enough richness that it feels like it has quite good balance. Given the seriousness of the structure, you'd think that good bottles of this have quite a lot of time in front of them.

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  4/9/2009 - cct wrote: 95 Points

  Deep ruby in color. Telltale camphor, gum, choco-cherry nose. Very deep and very well balanced. More chocolate, cassis, and black cherry on the palate. Terribly well balanced, clean and very pure. Also quite young and stupidly opened by me at this stage of the night. The next day (one glass left in a covered decanter until the next evening): far richer, denser and simultaneously more precise. Charcoal, and broader palate presence without losing any clarity. A world class wine at early peak. 92pts day one 95 pts day 2.

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