Winemaker Notes
Deep crimson with garnet hues. Fragrant aromas of cassis, violets, wild forest berries and crushed flowering herbs are supported by hints of graphite, black olive and cedar. The palate is rich and plush with excellent depth and structure, pure and focused mulberry, blueberry and cassis flavors and long, layered fine-grained tannins.
Pair with grass-fed veal tenderloin with Prosciutto, sage, charred leek, spinach
croquette and lemon butter.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A sassy, mid-weighted cabernet that is aromatic, inviting and immaculately crafted. Violet and crushed musk, with a whiff of mint. Red and black currant pastilles, anise and a bow of well wrought tannins wrapped in a dried sage, menthol and lavender piquancy, dry yet pliant and savory. Very good drinking from now across the mid-term. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Marble Angel Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is grown on clay and limestone, and the wine aromatically leads with cassis and bramble, peppercorns, prunes and tapenade. The wine is fine-boned and spicy and leaning hard into its chalky framework of tannins in the mouth, where you'll find scraped vanilla pod, blood plum and dark chocolate/cocoa.
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Wine Spectator
A concentrated version, with chai, date-nut bread, cassis and plum flavors. Star anise, black licorice and black pepper notes are effusive and gain momentum, with tobacco, bittersweet chocolate and dried herb accents that linger on a velvety frame. Drink now through 2036.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Higher in elevation and topographically more dramatic than the Barossa Valley floor, Eden Valley abuts it to its south and east. While it is a bit of an extension of Barossa, Eden Valley is topographically different than the pastoral Barossa Valley, and is composed of rocky hills and eucalyptus groves.
Recognizing Eden Valley’s potential with Riesling in the 1960s and 70s, producers started to move their Riesling production from Barossa to these better sites where schist soils on hilltops would produce more steely, tart and age-worthy examples. A most famous site, planted by Colin Gramp, called Steingarten, today produces one of the most outstanding Australian Rieslings. Youthful Eden Valley Rieslings express floral, grapefruit and mineral, while with time in the bottle, they become increasingly toasty and complex.
Riesling isn’t the only grape the region can grow; undeniably at lower altitudes Shiraz does very well. Mount Edelstone is a notable vineyard as well as the Hill of Grace, which boasts healthy Shiraz vines well over 100 years old. This is the only Australian region where Merlot has a made a name for itself and Chardonnay can be spectacular, particularly from the High Eden subregion in the southern valley.