Great $15 Cab: Longhop Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Another super budget wine from Dom Torzi, who seems to have a serious knack for leveraging forgotten old vines in forgotten places to deliver bargains. This Cabernet comes from a 50yr old vineyard at Hillier, on Adelaide’s fringe, with a parcel also from Uleybury, which similarly sits in no-mans-land somewhere between the Adelaide Plains, Barossa and Adelaide Hills.

What makes this so impressive is just how genuine it is, carrying everything you’d want for in a $15 South Australian Cabernet – liquidised blackberry fruit, capped with a dusty, ‘hello Cabernet’ edge, a snifter of coconut oak, soft tannins and easy flavours. It’s just a little simple, but the palate flow is exceptionally smooth and gently berried, with gentle acidity and no shortage of vibrance.

What a delicious, juicy and ripe, dark-fruited South Australian Cabernet this is. Two thumbs up.

Drink: 2013-2018
Score: 17.7/20, 92/100
Would I buy it? I’d easily drink a glass. Maybe heaps more. It’s that good.