Henschke Cyril Henschke Cabernet 2018

Beautiful, attractive cabernet characters with cigars, tobacco leaf, currants, savory tapenade and sweet roasted chili peppers. Cocoa powder and star anise, too. Intense, but remaining fluid with a bright, red-fruited center palate followed by a lengthy, layered finish, full of Spanish chocolate and cigar box characters. Lasting almost a minute.

Some of the vines for this wine were planted by Cyril Henschke back in the 1960s. Matured in French oak (10% new) for 18 months. Bright blackberry and blackcurrant fruits with top notes of redcurrant and red cherry. Olive tapenade, cedar, light briar notes and mountain herbs. Fine lacy acidity and tight, powdery tannin provide the frame, and there is no doubt that this release will age magnificently. (3/2023)

Oh-so-Henschke in style, this distinctive Cab is rich and lucid, with a heady nose of stewed plums and blackcurrant cordial, and an underbelly of iodine and beet root, that leads to a silky, succulent palate that's laced with ripe, chalky, tannins, and a blackberry finish. A few years of bottle age puts this in a sexy spot now, but it can go another decade at least.

The 2018 vintage of the Cyril Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon marks the 38th release of this wine. The 3.2-hectare single vineyard from which the fruit hails is planted on a combination of sandy loam and clay, over a bedrock of mica schist. The 2018 Cyril Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc, matured in a combination of new (10%) and seasoned (the balance) French oak hogsheads for 18 months prior to blending and bottling. On the nose, tobacco leaf, blackberry, resin/tar, salted licorice and vanilla pod rise to the fore. In the mouth, the wine is fluid, pretty and composed, with a restrained outlay of flavors across the long finish. I had thought initially that the wine displayed aromatically as quite green; a glance at the numbers told me this might be unlikely (14.5% alcohol, pH 3.56, total acidity 6.5 gram per liter); however, there are certainly inflections in the mouth that support this notion. This is very elegant. The cassis is revealed as the wine opens. Give it time.Rating:93+

A classy nose, where notes of earth, gravel, cedar and lilac join plush, ripe, blackcurrant and cassis fruit. Juicy blackcurrants to the fore on the deep palate, mingling with fleshier mulberry, dried mint, earth and compost nuances along with an amplified floral accent – heady lilacs versus the violets of 2015. Powdery, mouthcoating tannins and ripe, redcurrant acidity underpin the long, mineral wet-stone finish. This marathon runner wears its plush fruit and firm structure lightly. (3/2021)