Which wine is it ?
Wynn’s Black Label Cabernet of course, from the Coonawarra Region of South Australia. I read somewhere that it had recently overtaken Penfolds Bin 389 as the most collected wine in Australia and this tasting, organised by a very generous contributor to the Auswine forum, showed why.
We had 24 bottles to try, starting with a few oldies, followed by multiple vintages from the 80s and 90s where we drank the Black Label against the John Riddoch Cabernet, Wynn’s flagship red.
My conclusion was simple. The BL needs a lot of time and with age it’s hard to tell it apart from the JR. In terms of collecting it’s a no brainier - you buy the BL for a third of the price.
I’m quite a mean scorer, and don’t think I have ever given our 3 5* ratings in one tasting before, so for me this was an indication of how good the wines were. Great as they were though, none of the wines showed that extra something that the truely great wines do: there was no epiphany moment, nothing to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. That’s fine: wines that do that tend to cost many times more than the BL. As the title say, this is the gold standard in reliable, age worthy, qpr Cabernet.
With 24 bottles, 10 tasters and food, there was not enough time to take detailed notes, so this is a summary
Flight 1. 65 (3*) and 68 (2.5*) BL
Great colour on the 65 and it had good cassis fruit on the nose and the mid palate. The finish was clipped though and became harder and shorter with air. One of these 30 minute old wines although it was still drinkable at the end of the evening. The 68 was one of those wines that could easily be written off as dead. Lots of brown, tertiary flavours and oxidative notes. It picked up though in the glass and it was not long before a raspberry liquer flavour emerged from the mid palate. It is one for the necrophiles, but I was one of the few who preferred it to the 65
Flight 2 70(4*),72 (2*) and 76 (5*) BL
My 72 was spoiled by my glass, which was reeking of detergent. My own fault. I could still pick up a lot of raisins though and although this was old, it would have enjoyed it in a clean glass. The 70 has all the flavours I was expecting of an old JR. The nose was sweaty, the palate complex. By itself at a dinner it would be the star, but I tasted it after the 76 and it suffered by comparison. My notes for the 76 start “Balance, balance, balance’. Refined and poised this is an effortless wine that caresses the palate with the essence of Cabernet. Beautiful and although a few thought that it fell away a bit too quickly, my guess is that it needs further time in order for the complexity to really appear.
Flight 3 82 BL (5*) & JR (5*)
This is where things started to go AWOL. Served blind the JR was very similar to the 76 BL. It was a controlled, pure and powerful expression of cassis and violets. Yum. The BL was a much more complex wine, with all the tomato leaf and paprika I was expecting from the JR. Bags of fruit, long and probably at its peak. Wine of the night for most people, and when we voted, most thought that this was the JR. Fantastic flight.
Flight 4 86 BL (3*) and JR (3*)
The flight I was most looking forward to and correspondingly the most disappointing. The BL was the most Bordeaux like wine of the night, with some ceder in amongst the cassis fruit. I wont say it was closed, but it is definetly still young and needs more time. I liked the nose on the JR and even found some curry tones. This had the bell pepper and tomato leaf I was expecting, and while it was in the style of the 82 BL, it was not up to the same level. Again I would say that it needs a bit more time, but maybe its just not the vintage I thought it was.
Flight 5 88 BL 4() JR (4)
Not much difference between these 2. Both were in the fruit forward style and neither had developed the secondary flavours I was hoping for. Apparently this was a cooler year and maybe they overdid the oak slightly, as these were the first wines I actually noticed any. You can drink this now, but I’d be looking to leave both a bit longer
Flight 6 90 BL (2*) JR (2*)
No notes on these as they arrived with the main course. I think there were issues with both bottles, but I’ll have to let someone else fill in the blanks
Flight 7 91 BL (3*), JR (4*), Centenery Release (4*)
The Centenery Release has shiraz in the blend so we expected it to be different to the previous wines. That explained why virtually nobody picked it out of the lineup. The Cab completely dominates and most of us thought it was actually the BL, as it shared the same footprint as the 76 and 82. The JR was the richest of the evening and had a warmth and a fruit profile that marked it out as something different. With some cedar and mulberry this has to be the Centenary. Nope. The BL had some oxidation in the nose, that I thought added to the complexity. Not up to the older vintages, but perfect bottles would probably get a higher rating
The rest of the wines were either faulty or in need of 10-20 years. The 94 JR was corked, the 96 had some oxidation and the 98 was big and burley and displayed none of the complexity a magnum showed last year. The 99 is very primary and needs time. Best of the BL for me was the 98, which had some savoury oak but was very much “a young wine that happens to be 21 years old”. The 99, 96 and 94 were all fruit forward and missing the complexity that will surely develop.