And now a Hunter Valley Cabernet: Sweetwater Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

Cabernet, the other other red meat of the Hunter Valley. Lake’s Folly makes the best Cabernet-based wines in the Hunter, and there is a smattering of other plantings, but this grape has mostly been (rightly) run out of Pokolbin. All of which makes this Sweetwater Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 an outlier, if a sophisticated one. It was picked on the 28th of February, which was once normal but is now late in an era when reds are picked at the beginning of Feb (vintage is basically finished up there now). It’s quite varietal, too – Cabernet lead pencil, mint, red fruits. It’s just a bit lean through the finish, which closes up a bit, but again, it’s long and solid. You might struggle to pick this as Hunter Cab in some lights – it has a Yarra Valley pencilly-ness to it. Ultimately a not insignificant wine, even if the vines should be grafted over to something else (like more Touriga).

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: now and for twenty years easy, This style lives and lives and lives
• Score (out of 20): 17.7
• Score (out of 100): 92
• Alcohol %: 13.5
• RRP (in $AUD): 70
• Winery website: https://sweetwaterwines.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: a glass, ideally drunk on an old school leather couch for those claret vibes