Community Tasting Note

• Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 94 points

  October 7, 2023 - There are few things in life better than the breaking of wind that relieves a gut ravaged by stress.
  
  Drinking mature, classical Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the few things that just might be better. But why not do both? Be a Boozing Buddhist and honour the Ying (wind) and the Yang (Cabernet). Share both with a friend if you will, or be like me, a solitary farter and drinker.
  
  Stonyridge make a superb Cabernet, year after year that is very true to the classical left bank Bordeaux style. I would struggle in a blind tasting to pick this was not a Pauillac or Haut Medoc.
  
  The wine pours with a deep, almost inky colour (perhaps a depth that suggests it is not Bordeaux) and it is showing age - brick and scarlet.
  
  I note that this wine puts on depth and gains fruit over 5-6 hours open, rather than losing weight and fruit. I think it is accurate that this is a mature wine but vagaries of cork allowing, it is far from being on the decline.
  
  The nose and palate deliver notes of olive, juniper, some silage and red-currant. Tannins are still present but are very close to fully resolved. Acid is in balance, providing freshness. Length is outstanding and this is about as close to a perfect expression of the style as you can get. The red fruits are definitely the least strong of the characters I have noted, as one might expect from a wine so venerable.
  
  I have had to fight myself in true Calvinist style not to guzzle this; the Papists be damned. This wine deserves disciplined drinking. As another volley of wind breaks out, reminding me of WW1 rolling barrages, I smile and feel the gut tension ease. Good Cabernet does that. Journey's End. Soon it will be all quiet on the western front.
  
  

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2 Comments

• KillerJones commented:

  10/7/23, 5:34 PM - 😂🤣 - outrageous writing! Your review almost made me spit out my mouthful of wine...I love it - "papists be damned'.
  
  You are quickly becoming my favorite reviewer here, you know. Your humor & wine knowledge are on another level, sir.
  
  Keep up this fantastic writing - please.

• Rote Kappelle commented:

  10/7/23, 8:43 PM - Dear Killer,
  
  You are very kind. I am afraid that my wine knowledge is such that I must write more for humour and effect because, the truth is, I have a palate like a tractor. It gets a job done, in a basic kind of way, but you would not want to arrive at the ball in this; refined it is not. I would always check my assessment of a wine against other, better palates.
  
  Fortunately, the Stonyridge enjoys a very high reputation amongst those who get to try it - for it is a limited production, from a wee land a long, long way away.
  
  Fight the good fight, comrade!

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