Crayères Reserve 2016
“Grown on the estate’s close-planted vineyard in Wrattonbully. Cabernet sauvignon (68%), shiraz (16%) and cabernet franc (16%). 84% new French oak for 11 months and then into five-year-old oak for 18 months. Just over 460 dozen produced.
There’s a good deal of oak flavour (and texture) here but the fruit, while not dense, is essentially up to it and the length of the finish is top-tier. This wine tastes of redcurrant and iodine, cedarwood and toast, and while there are dried herb and saltbush-like characters, this wine is more about fruit and oak than it is about leaf. Tannin is expertly, expertly massaged into the wine and helps therefore to carry the finish; if it wasn’t for the elevated level of oak I suspect I’d be raving even more than I am. Give it a few more years.” 93+ points
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
