Cabernet grapes from warmer regions like the Barossa Valley and Clare Valley make exceptional wines though both districts have been sidelined by the rise of Cabernet wines from the cooler Yarra Valley and Margaret River. As well in the background we have the Cabernet triumphs of Coonawarra another cooler region. On a global scale the French region of Bordeaux, a cool maritime region, is noted for expensive Cabernets, much sort after, which for many drinkers are the pinnacle of achievement. This perception has made it hard to bring attention to the Cabernets of the Barossa Valley.
Useful background from The Australian, July, 2024, ‘Then in 1964, the same year in which Penfolds won the famed Jimmy Watson Trophy for the 1963 Bin 64 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon, Schubert found himself with fruit of the exact character he’d been seeking for a cabernet-based wine built along Grange lines. It came from the famed Block 42 on the Kalmina vineyard, home to vines planted in 1888, and thought to be the oldest still productive cabernet vines in the world’. This Cabernet was bottled by Glug and you can approach it with confidence.
