This is the pick of Sam Brand’s 2021 Cabernet wines, I think. From a one-acre block in the Coonawarra township, it’s just a good, robust red. Real classic Coonawarra aromatics – mint, dark berries, red earth and a coffee mocha oak. Archetypcal tannin-led palate, with drying cedar and coffee oak, adding a structural beam. If anything, it’s a bit too tannic rather than fruit-driven, but the length and the cedary Cabernet charisma is absolutely first-rate.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: Now or in two decades. A sweet spot in another five to eight years?
• Score (out of 20): 18.5
• Score (out of 100): 94
• Alcohol %: 14
• RRP (in $AUD): 85
• Winery website: https://www.brandandsons.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: Worth sharing a bottle