This Tapanappa Whalebone Cab Shiraz 2016 sure packs in flavour, but it would be more compelling if it was less ripe.

85% Wrattonbully Cabernet and 15% Adelaide Hills Shiraz (from the Shining Rock Vineyard which Brian Croser founded in the Petaluma days). It’s deep, thick and coffeed, the palate drenched with dark chocolate flavour and a thick, cooked berry middle.

A huge wine, of considerable impact, with thickset fruit and chocolate oak at every turn.  There’s a sense of savouriness and unquestioned length and breadth, though it’s treacly on the tail and alcoholic, the finish burning off some regionality in the process.

I can see the vision of this red, can feel the inensity and taste the quality of the fruit and oak. But the volume knob is just a bit high…

Best drinking: will live and get better, but the balance may never come. 17/20, 90/100+. 14.9%, $55. Tapanappa website. Would I buy it? No.