Tasting Notes for Kangarilla Road Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

Red Wines	Cabernet Sauvignon	McLaren Vale	Australia

My Rating (circle) :

Date Printed: 5/25/2013

Kangarilla Road Cabernet Sauvignon 2002

(search item no. 80261)
The Wine Advocate rating: 91 points
PRICE ON 5/25/2013: $19.99

ratings pedigree (past vintages):
2009 Wine Spectator rating: 89 points
2008 Wine Spectator rating: 90 points
2007 Australian Wine Companion rating: 92 points
2007 The Wine Advocate rating: 90 points
2006 Australian Wine Companion rating: 94 points
2006 Wine Enthusiast rating: 90 points
2005 Wine Spectator rating: 90 points
2004 The Wine Advocate rating: 91 points
2004 International Wine Cellar rating: 90 points
2003 The Wine Advocate rating: 90 points
2001 The Wine Advocate rating: 89 points

Winemaker's Notes:

"The 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon may be one of the best buys in Cabernet Sauvignon in the marketplace. A 100% Cabernet Sauvignon aged 18 months in both French and American oak, it exhibits a deep ruby/purple color as well as classic creme de cassis, toasty oak, and licorice characteristics. This dense, opulently textured, pure, rich, flavorful red reveals sweet tannin in addition to a long, velvety-textured finish. Drink it over the next 7-8 years."
-Wine Advocate

The Cabernet Sauvignon on our vineyard produces small berries with a high skin to juice ratio. The result is a wine that is intense and structured yet is rich and has the ripe flavor for which McLaren Vale is renowned. The fruit was picked late in the season when ripe and, after fermentation, matured for 18 months in American and French oak of varying ages.

The color is a deep dark vibrant crimson. The bouquet has lifted ripe berry fruit and blackcurrant with some vanillin and cedary oak characters as well as classic cassis Cabernet aromas. The palate has plenty of berry fruit, vanillin oak and fine tannins. An intense and structured wine with rich fruit and a long finish.

My Notes:

About Kangarilla Road Vineyard & Winery:

Before creating the Kangarilla Road vineyard and winery, Kevin O'Brien was a winemaker educated at the highly regarded Roseworthy College in Adelaide. He spent 12 years in the wine industry managing wine companies, as well as two years as the international manager of the Australian Wine Export Council. Today, Kangarilla Road's reds display rich varietal character with finesse, structure and balance not always exhibitied by wines from McLaren Vale. Aside from the winery's Shiraz and cabernet, it can boast of one of the few successful zinfandel plantings in Australia.

Kangarilla Road is a fairly new brand on the Australian wine scene, but the grapes come from vines planted in the 1970's. For several years prior to 1997, Kevin and Helen O'Brien had been seeking a high quality McLaren Vale vineyard to purchase. When they were lucky enough to find the old-vine Cambrai vineyard, they jumped at the chance to purchase it. The winery's first complete vintage as Kangarilla Road was in 1998.