2012 Paulett Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot

Community Tasting Notes (1) Avg Score: 90 points

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  1/15/2022 - Rote Kappelle wrote: 90 Points

  Scored as 'Excellent' on the Cellar Tracker scale, bottle under screw cap, wine decanted and note made across 2 days.
  
  Colour is deep, just short of inky, with almost no fading at the rim as one tilts the glass. There is just enough of a suggestion of garnet to stop one thinking it is a new release of 2-3 years, but a decade old would be a surprise.
  
  Nose is dominated by disappointingly crude vanilla and pencil shaving oak on first day open (18 months in new hogsheads will do that). On day 2 the cassis and plums are more to the fore, although I find the oak is still lurking like a slightly clumsy assassin - not enough in the bloody shadows.
  
  The palate is similar to the nose in terms of oak, but on day 2 there is much better integration and the creamy mouth feel will appeal to many (but it is an artifice of oak, not derived from well balanced fruit and tannin and acid). There is great drive and length and the tannins are well balanced and I believe the grape tannins are ripe. This is a big Australian style, but with a bit more acid freshness than one would see in the Barossa or McLaren Vale. Served with bold food I think it would be a crowd pleaser. As I like neither crowds nor pleasing them, I am more reticent about this wine.
  
  You can't complain about value, or about getting a really well made wine. That it has years left in it (easily another 10) is a bonus, given the price. I think it has the fruit that will carry more age and I think it will absorb more of the oak, but I think 6 months less in hogshead would have created a better balance. A lot of people will, quite reasonably, love this as it is. If this is your style, you are getting big fruit, big oak at a small price and you should go for it.

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