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NOTES
Yalumba's The Scribbler stole the show last year - this year it's the Cigar Cabernet. This is a fantastic wine. If this is an indication of the reds to come from the 2008 Coonawarra vintage, we're excited in advance. Yalumba ‘The Cigar’ is a new wine from the Yalumba Coonawarra Estate. Sibling to ‘The Menzies’, this wine is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon harvested from the Menzies North and Menzies South vineyards. Named for the unique cigar-shaped strip of rich red terra rossa soil which defines Coonawarra’s wine region. Today, Coonawarra vineyard land is prized like a precious gem. The Menzies Cabernet was planted in 1975 and 1994 and "The Cigar" is tended to be sourced from the younger plantings. In similar fashion with the estate wine ‘The Menzies’, ‘The Cigar’ is made through small lot winemaking techniques.
The Big Red Wine Book 2010/2011 has named Yalumba The Cigar Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 its undisputed Wine of the Year. Authors Campbell Mattinson and Gary Walsh scored the wine 95 points, announcing this Coonawarra beauty had “cornered the holy trinity of quality, value and availability better than any other” wine in the 1000+ reviewed for the book.
TASTING NOTES
Deep magenta in colour with a nose of full intensity, the Cigar 2006 is a brooding wine showing leather, dark chocolate and high tones of cassis and ju-jube fruit pastilles. The palate surprises as it is not the brute the nose suggests. It is medium bodied wine with fruit flavours of dark cherries and blackberries, the tannins are silky and in harmony with the fruit to lingering finish.
REVIEWS
Really good Coonawarra Cabernet has a dark, inky depth - even at moderate alcohol levels. It tastes of blackberries and dried herbs, cedarwood and raspberries, though listing the components does nothing to describe the overal effect. There's a 'realness' to this wine. A power. A churn of tannin and a lot of length. It's enough to make you fall in love with Coonawarra all over again. Drink 2013-2020 95 points. The Big Red Wine Book 2010/2011 by Campbell Mattinson and Gary Walsh
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