Devils Lair Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

December 9, 2013

Devils Lair Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 (Margaret River, WA)
14.5%, Screwcap, $50
Source: Sample
www.devils-lair.com

Tasting young tannic Cabernet Sauvignon just isn’t fun. Sure, there are exceptions, and some vintages/styles are infinitely more approachable than others, but on the whole tasting young Cabernet is a pretty masochistic exercise.

Typically, this Devils Lair was hard work. I opened it in a small line of blind Cabernets and it stuck out for its lack of approachability, tasting more like a bucketload of ‘Cabernet Sauvignon’ ingredients chucked together and decreed as wine.

But you know what? The quality of those components are good. Real good. The fruit is deep, curranty and powerful (if a little cooked), beefed up by quite sweet oak but ultimately dry, and grunty and savoury. The all-important tannins, too, are firm and blocky and gritty. They’re masculine tannins for a masculine wine, again edged with oak, but reassuringly powerful and expanding throughout the warmish (typical for ’11 in Margs) finish.

This is no elegant Margaret River Cabernet. Nor is it all that well balanced for the moment. But I reckon that once that bucketload of Cabernet components comes together (in about five years time) this is going to be an impressively bold and concentrated wine of unquestioned appeal.

Drink: 2015-2025
Score: 17.5/20, 91/100+
Would I buy it? If I was feeling patient. In five years time I may look back and wish I had of said ‘yes’.

2011, Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, Wine

Andrew Graham was once voted the 23rd most trusted wine critic on the planet. A WCA Journalism Young Gun now old hack with 25yrs as a buyer, judge, journalist, marketer and too much more.

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