Review: Harewood Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2020. Big and surprisingly classy.

The Harewood Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is the best Harewood red I’ve had in ages. Historically, the array of single vineyard Riesling from this Great Southern producer float my boat with predictable results, while the reds too often come across as surprisingly inelegant. But here, the planets have aligned, delivering a robust red that is so undeniably persuasive.

All Great Southern fruit matured for a huge two years in new and one-year-old oak. Huge is the right word, with a huge minty wall of dark fruit and oak hitting you with a promise of thick red wine. But just when you think this deeply flavoured and oak-fortified red can be too much, the back end takes over with its savour and mint-flecked tannic poise. This is really good. Yes, it’s rich, tending towards warm and threatening to be fruitcakey, but also drying and rather clean/pure to finish off in that slightly minty, impressively long and regal Great Southern way. I like it.

Best drinking: now or for the long, long haul (fifteen years easy). 18.5/20, 94/100. 14%, $50. Harewood Estate website. Would I buy it? Worth a bottle, for sure.