2004 Yalumba Cabernet Sauvignon The Menzies

Community Tasting Notes (25) Avg Score: 90.3 points

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  7/30/2023 - The Drunken Cyclist Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Retail $70. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. I do not drink much wine from Australia. In fact, if I pop even a dozen Aussie corks every year, I would be surprised. I acquired this bottle way back in 2009--it was supposed to be a different wine, but the seller sent me this instead. Whoa. Dark in color, in the glass, with plum, cassis, black licorice, and sage on the nose. The palate is rich but harmonious, meaty, but fruity, tart, but balanced. I am not a huge Cab guy, but this is particularly fantastic.
  
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  7/9/2023 - Rote Kappelle Likes this wine: 93 Points

  For me, Yalumba is one of those brands that I struggle to get excited by. This is silly, because they are an old wine making firm with fantastic vineyards and they make wines that at worst might be described as solid, commercial and eminently drinkable. At best, the wines are excellent and provide varietal and regional integrity that shows that commercial can still be very good indeed.
  
  I think my reticence largely connects to an association of them with the sort of safe, boring wines that some people gravitate to when they decide they like wine, but don't want to be challenged by it; the Beatles, Dire Straits, Robert Cray musical equivalents. Or post 'Echoes' Pink Floyd for those who don't really think the band lost anything when Roger Waters left, Let's throw in Allan Parson's Project as well. I don't mind (and even quite like) these bands but they are what they are and that includes being technically excellent.
  
  At any rate, this wine shows the best and worst of what Yalumba do. It is a wine that objectively is at the upper end of the 'Excellent' range. It has great length and intensity, it shows varietal cassis fruit which is ripe but never in the jam spectrum (despite 2004 being a warm year), there are some lovely notes of mint (but not bitter or mean) and cedar and tobacco. I think there is also some oak derived lift/perfume - not excessive but it's there. Under that are some darker notes, chocolate and earth.
  
  The palate also features a creamy aspect to the texture that I suspect is largely oak driven, but it works and there is enough acid to stop the wine feeling thick, or treacly. Tannins are present but they are ripe and supportive and this is a wine that is very much ready now but should hold for another 5-10 years before starting to move into more tertiary characters.
  
  A very pleasing drink, easy and who could blame you if you absolutely loved it? Whether it is my ambivalence about the maker or the wine style itself, it never quite succeeds in fully engaging me but those lush textures and sounds are soothing and you get value for money and you know you will get what you pay for.
  
  Between Pink Floyd's un-Rogered 'Momentary Lapse of Reason' and the hard Rogering of 'Radio KAOS' I almost always go for a good Rogering, but when it comes to Jazz, my tastes tend to lean more towards 'easy' and I often struggle with Be Bop, Hard Bop and the like, so there is no moral or objective element to these preferences, they just reflect what you are looking for and your level of involvement, knowledge etc. Salt Peanuts, anyone?

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  9/17/2019 - GeorgeSW wrote: 93 Points

  Very good, dark fruit ,still tight, give it more time

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  6/17/2016 - LiveForLunch Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Concentrated aged and balanced Aussie Cab. Great. Threw plenty of sediment, only slight bricking. Quite firm still, but the tannins were a high frequency buzz, pleasant if you like that (I do). Just a tad jammy or would have scored higher.

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  12/18/2015 - AHVinoFile wrote: 92 Points

  [At G&L S's de Montrose dinner]. Opaque black with garnet rim. Plummy blackcurrant bouquet with hints of earth, dried flowers, cigar box, spices & subtle oak. Full, deep, intense, quite dense & concentrated black fruits underpinned by fair amount of smooth ripe tannins & velvety extracts with bright acidity in fine balance; excellent mouthfeel with sharp focus. Long tangy finish. (92.5)

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