Winemaker Notes
Pair with: pomegranate and fennel glazed rack of Limestone Coast lamb.
Vegan and Vegetarian Friendly
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
This refined, seamless, medium-weight style layers currant, blueberry, cedar and spice flavors that float through the supple finish and keep singing. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet/purple, the 2012 The Menzies Coonawarra Retreat Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz opens to aromas of eucalyptus, minted cassis, crushed blueberries and chocolate box with hints of pencil shavings. Tightly knit on the medium to full-bodied palate, it has good expression plus firm, grainy tannins and a long finish.
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.
Distinguished by a thin, subterranean band of crumbled, red clay loam, Coonawarra is a fairly flat, otherwise unobtrusive region with a cool Mediterranean climate, actually not dissimilar to Bordeaux.
In Coonawarra, this unique layer of red clay is called, "terra rossa" and gets its color from iron oxide. The terra rossa soil overlies soft, penetrable limestone, in a continuous area that is part of the Limestone Coast zone of South Australia. This uncommon layering of soils creates a substrate that is both well draining and at the same time, offers good water retention to support vine roots through dry summers.
Not surprisingly, Coonawara experiences great success with the Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but also Shiraz. However Cabernet reigns superior and accounts for half of the Coonawarra harvest each year. Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon develops powerful, yet polished tannins, ripe, red berry fruit and often sweet herb or dried mint qualities. The region has an increased focus on the individual expressions of single vineyards.