Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

Andrew Caillard MW

Deep crimson. Beautiful cigar box, blackcurrant aromas with underlying roasted chestnut notes. Classically structured with plentiful cassis, black cherry, cedar flavours, fine grained savoury tannins, attractive quartz-like acidity and well-integrated roasted chestnut/ vanilla oak. Finishes chalky firm and minerally. Archetypal Coonawarra Claret with superb vibrancy, and cabernet bloodlines. Deserves a year or more cellaring time to allow all the elements to unfold. Drink: 2024–2038;

Wine Pilot

One of Australia’s favourite wines and deservedly so, especially in such a fine vintage. Cracking value, whether in comparison to other top Aussie reds, other fine Coonawarra Cabs, or even in comparison with others in the Wynns range. We first saw this wine from the 1954 vintage. The latest comes from a selection of 25 of their top vineyards. Opaque maroon in colour, this is a classic Coonawarra Cab. Still youthful, it is tight, taut and with coiled power, just waiting for the release by time. Cassis, blackcurrants, chocolate, coffee beans, tobacco leaves and mint all shine with early complexity already evident. The palate is more plums and chocolate, especially cocoa powder notes, with quality oak integration. Showing very fine silky tannins, the wine is also well balanced with serious length. A hint of cinnamon from the flick of oak on the finish too. Well structured, this will sail through fifteen to twenty years in good cellars. A great Coonawarra Cabernet and surely one of the finest of this line, ever released. Drink: 2023 - 2043;

Robert Parker

The 2021 Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon is both opulent and balanced, restrained and long, with a ferrous line of tannin that courses over the palate, where it's inky and iodine, with crushed shells and mint fondant, dark chocolate and cassis. It's a lovely wine, from a great year. 13.4% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

James Halliday

Such fine-grained tannin, such even-handed fruit, such a lengthy finish. This is a beautiful Black Label cabernet, elegantly medium-bodied, blessed with blackcurrant, forest berry, cool mint and cedar characters, and tempered by tobacco-like leaf notes. This will be a gorgeous drink with a few extra years on it. Drink to: 2046

James Halliday

Natalie Maclean

From Coonawarra Estate, Wynns Black Label 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon is the 66th vintage of this Australian classic which was first made in 1954. The 2021 release is from an exceptional vintage, dry, medium-bodied and lush with dark cherry, blackberry, cassis, chocolate, and smoky toasty oak spice flavours vibrant and elegant on the palate, tannins are fine and chalky-textured. Good now, better in 2025 or cellar to 2040. Pour with a juicy, well-marbled prime rib from the grill.

The Real Review

Really impressive colour: deep, dark and inky. Complex aromas of blackcurrant, blackberry, bramble, eucalyptus, ferrous earth, cedar and menthol. Powerful, dark fruit drives the palate, with lashings of cassis, mulberry, menthol and grippy, granular tannins. Firm, textured and has great length. Classic Coonawarra cabernet here: a benchmark

Decanter

With a history dating back to 1954, this sturdy multi-site blend of Cabernet Sauvignon fruit has rightly remained a benchmark for value. It shows the same nod to open-hearted appeal here – a rich flavour meld, a seamless, silky plate and pleasing persistence. It’s a model of sensible medium-weight balance, showing cool Cabernet character with rich, vermillion-coloured briar hedge fruits and aromas. While it has drink-now appeal, the depth of character also suggests good ageing potential through the next decade.

Michael Godel

Black Label sets the gold standard for Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon and if ye have not yet become a believer than this is the bottle with which to get started. The unwavering bluster of its aromatic capacity accedes the fifth dimension. That endows the Wynns BL with one more than the usual three spatial dimensions and the fourth dimension of time used in relativistic physics. At least as it pertains to cab sauv because logic, proportion and measurement determine how special the perfumes truly are. This 66th vintage brings the cool factor, a graphite, mint and sweet blackberry sensation gained that skills through flavours with complex stars shooting through the black spaces of the wine. Galactic stuff, so enjoyable and age worthy to the end of the following decade.