Though its use on our labels has long been banished, you’ll still hear wine types of a certain age pine for “claret”. It’s partly nostalgia, and partly a projection, wondering what the future holds for medium-bodied Australian blends built from …
The 2021 Tapanappa Cabernet Merlot Franc blend is an unusual expression from the vineyard, due to the low-yielding vintage. There is a seamless display of opulent Cabernet Sauvignon aromas with layers of black olive, graphite and spice from the other …
Perfumed and savoury, with aromas of plums, blackberries, bitter chocolate, mahogany, liquorice, violets and potpourri. The palate is mid-weighted with fine-grained tannins, a textural mouthfeel and complex dark fruit, spices, earth and dried herbs. A blend of 54% Cabernet Sauvignon, …
Medium deep garnet to ruby rim still there. Still fresh with a core of berry fruit: black, boysen and blue. White pepper, powdered cocoa, cedar and vanilla still offering some winemaking influence. There’s a hint of development with nori sheet/beef …
Deep garnet with a soft velvet rim. Aromas complex and calm: rose petals, drinking cocoa and cassis with blueberries and raspberries, blood plum, new leather, cedar, a small amount of rosemary (leaf and flower), a touch of vanilla, graphite and …
Tapanappa Wrattonbully Whalebone Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc 2015, $115. Didn’t women once wear whalebone in their corsets? Seems totally inappropriate for such a grand creature, which increases no end the credibility of this wine grown on the soil of long …
This wine has been held back for a prestigious re-release. It of course was reviewed some time ago on WineFront, with applause and praise given.
It’s in a beautiful spot. Almost a ‘pinosity’ to the wine, suppleness, medium weight, satiny …
It’s a heady mix of Merlot and Cabernet Franc (69/31%) from the cool 2015 vintage. Remnants of oak, cedar, redcurrant – all the more impressive for a wine at ten years to maintain a level of primary expression.
It was …
Bright red and youthful in the glass. Lifted and complex aromas of blackberry, Asian spice, nutmeggy oak, bramble, mulberry, dark cherry and pipe tobacco. Firm, structured, mouth-filling and generously flavoured. The tannins are firm and bring plenty of grip and …
What a stunning wine this is. It is made from fruit grown on the now 51-year-old Whalebone Vineyard on the Limestone Coast that was identified decades ago by wine industry veteran Brian Croser as “a distinguished site” capable of producing …
Although the nose shows a hint of maturity, the plum/blackberry fruit is impressively fresh. This exceptional wine is certainly an Australian Pomerol, and the powdery tannins interact seamlessly with the intense flavour.
5 stars
…
The ripe blackcurrant and mulberry aromatics carry a hint of leaf and subtle oak. An impressively long palate carries the fine, savoury tannins with ease. Cellar ten years at least.…
What a sheer privilege it was to taste this Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard blend 2015 alongside the new 2021 release. Brian Croser is releasing a small quantity of the 2015s and its pure class is obvious. Better still, what a thrilling …
This Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Cabernets Merlot Franc 2021 is a slightly different blend to the 2015 that it was tasted alongside. What a treat it was to capture the past alongside the current release. This is an excellent wine – …
A blend of 53/16/16/15% Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc/Shiraz. Matured in 50% new French barriques for 18 months. A wine that is as vivid as the imagery of the whale skeleton found buried beneath the vineyard. Fresh figs, boysenberry and Chinese bayberry. …
Brian Croser has made the decision to re-release this wine from what was a coolish vintage, not dissimilar to the 2021. It’s a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. And even after 10 years, it’s bright with energy and life …
As always, the opportunity to source a wine already matured by the producers is an opportunity which should not be ignored. This is a blend of 69% Merlot and 31% Cabernet Franc, each variety made separately before the final step …
2021 was a cracking vintage in the Wrattonbully region – the home of this famous vineyard. The blend is 53.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Franc and 14.5% Shiraz. Each variety was treated discreetly, seeing eighteen months maturation in …
This wine is a product of a very cool vintage in Wrattonbully, which in many ways suits the style of wines that Brian Croser is making. It’s a combination of Cabernet Sauvignon, which makes up more than half the blend, …
Dark ruby with a purple hue and a seductive nose of violets, potpourri, black plum, roasted fig, cherry, mixed red and black berries, tobacco, tapenade, roasted peppers, eucalyptus and sweet garrigue.
In the mouth it’s effortless, finely structured, impeccably balanced …
For those with long memories, the rise of the Wrattonbully wine region will come as a sweet postscript to one of the biggest legal battles over regional boundaries ever fought in this country concentrating on Coonawarra. At the centre of …
The decision to re-release the 2015 red blend is deliberate. The year, a cool vintage, is intended as a comparison with the new release 2021 Whalebone Vineyard red blend, also from a cool year. The comparisons are there (minus, of …
A warm and dry vintage for the region in 2019, which helped ensure that the Whalebone Vineyard, planted 45 years ago, had a very small yield. The wine is a blend of 85% Cabernet and 15% Shiraz. The Shiraz comes …
This is about as fashionable as merlot gets, however, just because you have money, doesn’t mean you have taste, in which case buy this to cover it up. Scrumptious red wine for the rich and fashionable. 9.5/10.…
Same winemaking as the Merlot blend, but this wine soaks up the oak perfectly. It’s dark and oak framed, but the core of dark berry minty impact is bold enough to take out. It’s brooding, chocolatey, tannic, and somehow more …
A blend of 55% Merlot and 45% Cabernet Franc, which is standard fare for Bordeaux but an outlier blend in South Australia. 470 dozen produced. Spends 18 months in 50% new and 50% single-use oak, which has a lot of …
Merlot (55%) and Cabernet Franc (45%) blend with fruit grown on the 37 million year old soils of the 45 year old Tapanappa Whalebone vineyard. Bottled under cork. 2019 was warm and dry and only recevied 72% of ‘normal’ growing …
Cabernet Sauvignon (85%), Shiraz (15%) fruit grown on the 37 million year old soils of the Tapanappa Whalebone vineyard. Bottled under cork. 2019 was warm and dry, and ‘meagre’ harvest of 2.5 tonnes per hectare due to poor fruit set …
Medium depth of ruby to brick-red hue, the bouquet scented with pot-pourri and sandalwood, a hint of tapenade or olive paste, while the palate is full bodied and quite firm, with lashings of grippy tannins that would appreciate hearty protein …
Good depth and hue of colour, holding its age well, the bouquet suggesting camphor, green leaves, a hint of eucalyptus, and crushed peppercorns, while the palate is very firm and grippy, needing a hearty piece of steak to combat the …
Impressively fresh, perfectly ripe blackcurrant and dark berry aromas are supported by high quality oak. The long palate offers fine, silky tannins. Enjoyable drinking, but will reward cellaring.
4.5 stars
…
The nose is complex and intriguing, more secondary than primary, showing hints of tobacco leaf. A very finely structured, lengthy, savoury palate sets the seal on the excellence of this wine. If you love the wines of Bordeaux, you’ll understand. …
A warm and dry vintage for the region in 2019, which helped ensure that the Whalebone Vineyard, planted 45 years ago, had a very small yield. The wine is a blend of 85% Cabernet and 15% Shiraz. The Shiraz comes …
Everything about this wine suggests it is one for the long haul. Both the Merlot and Cabernet Franc come from the Whalebone Vineyard. The blend is 55% Merlot and 45% Cab Franc with blending only just before a seventeen month …
This is a stunning Australian nod to the wines of St Emilion on Bordeaux’s right bank, a compelling blend of two red grape varieties that often take a back seat but shine here with waves of flavours gently cascading onto …
Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard (Wrattonbully) Merlot Cabernet Franc, 2019, $90.
This is about as fashionable as merlot gets, however, just because you have money, doesn’t mean you have taste, in which case buy this to cover it up. Scrumptious red wine …
A great Aussie classic blend meets a Goldilocks kind of vintage – not too hot, not too cold – and the result is one mighty delicious wine. Bounces in ripe fruit highlighting the beauty of both grapes in black plum, …
Question: do you plan to drink this Wrattonbully red soon? If yes, then some advice. It needs air – a lot of swishing of air in the glass or, better still, a decant – and then watch it open. While …
This 2019 Cabernet Shiraz is quite a different beast from the Merlot Cabernet Franc from the same vintage showing more poise and finesse with red currant, cedar and earthy tones prominent. Again a strong heart of tannins is the key …
This broody and densely packed 2019 Merlot Cabernet Franc is exceptional and offers up muscular aromas of meat stock, blackberry and graphite with a strong backbone of new French oak. That density continues on the palate with a firm tannic …
Blend of merlot and cabernet franc. Some wines just put you at ease, from the outset. The volume of fruit here matched to the sure swagger of tannin speaks in no uncertain terms of the quality on offer. This is …
The effect of Shiraz on this blend is significant. It’s a wine threaded with herbal, tobacco-like graphite and mint notes, and structurally it feels very cabernet too, in that the tannin has a strictness to it. But then the mid-palate …
Blackcurrant, redcurrant, hazelnut and chocolate (praline), a fair amount of mint, sage and bay leaf adds perfume, along with some spice and cedar oak. It also has a dusty amaro-like quality, which I like. Medium to full-bodied, dusty and peppery, …
Lots of liquorice, mint, black fruit, camphor, cedar. Medium to full-bodied, lots of black fruit and mint, tobacco laced, with grainy tannin grip, shows some warming alcohol, but pulls cool and long on the finish, albeit a little grainy and …
Deep red ruby with a finely woven and complex nose of violets, orange zest, macerated strawberry and dried cherry tomato, black fruits, fig leaf, mint tea, savoury undergrowth, tobacco, cedar and crushed gravel minerality.
In the mouth it’s juicy, but …
Deep ruby with a beautiful nose of potpourri, a touch of lemon rind, raspberry licorice, brambly berries, cassis, bayleaf, thyme, Sicilian olive, roasted beef, pencil shavings, cedar and a sanguine mineral quality.
In the mouth it’s dry, elegant, finely structured …
…This is a 55% merlot and 45% cabernet franc blend made in a similar way to the cabernet shiraz. The colour is low intensity with bright crimson purple hues. The aroma shows superb black fruits, and dark plum with a
…Elegant, refined and stylish. The fruit comes from down at Wrattonbully and is taken up the winery in Piccadilly. Both varieties are kept separate during the fermentation and maturation stages before blending after 17 months in barriques. Bright crimson hues
South Australia’s wine story includes many well-worn tales of adventures into the unknown, maddening enterprise and celebrated family sagas. But then there are the more secret histories, which live on today in wines that reflect their colourful stories. Here, we …
Dark, impenetrable ruby and purple with a complex and savoury edged nose of violets, cassis, grilled cherry and plum, dried oregano, hints of mint tea, fig leaf, roasted meat, cedar, tobacco, graphite and a lift of sumac. Lots going on!…
The wine industry in Australia can be a parochial business, so kudos to an event in Victoria that is to put a spotlight on the wines of the Adelaide Hills.
For the first time, the International Cool Climate Wine Show …
What would Brian Croser say to his younger self? “Be patient, and trust the vineyard. The mistakes I’ve made in winemaking, which are legion, are because I’ve …
52/24/24% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/cabernet franc, each fermented separately. Matured for 20 months in new French barriques before blending; 420 dozen made. Poor flowering and fruit set in 2020 resulted in a Whalebone Vineyard crop of just 1t/ha. It was decided to …
Ultimately, this Tapanappa Whalebone Merlot Cabernet Franc 2018 is too firm and ripe to be great. But maybe, just maybe, it’s too young by half and I’m going to look like an idiot when it’s a blinder next decade. Try …
Medium deep crimson. Chinotto, plum vanilla, roasted chestnut aromas with herb garden notes. Evolved dark plum, mulberry flavours, fine loose knit grainy, hint leafy tannins well-balanced mocha roasted chestnut marzipan oak notes and well balanced fresh acidity. Finishes claret firm …
Medium deep crimson. Lovely intense blackcurrant, blackberry, hint chinotto aromas with vanilla, marzipan, roasted chestnut notes. Grainy textured and velvety with lovely inky blackcurrant, mulberry fruits, cedary textures and underlying vanilla/ marzipan notes. Finishes slinky firm and minerally. Very good …
Too much. That’s the challenge with both the latest Tapanappa Whalebone reds. This is a bit easier than the Merlot Cab, but still heavy-going, despite the obvious quality.From a warm, dry Wrattonbully vintage (Heat summation of 1799 degree days vs …
Deep, dark and inky in the glass. Lifted aromas of mulberry, blackcurrant, bramble, tobacco, menthol and oak. Rich, dark fruit and oaky on the palate, there’s a lush core of brooding mulberry fruit, plum, cola and firm granular tannins. Powerful, …
Here’s a mature wine – ready to enjoy right now – that is also a current release from Brian Croser’s excellent Tapanappa stable of wines. Fresh and juicy, but also stylish and sophisticated, it is a blend of Australia’s two …
| Wrattonbully, in South Australia’s Limestone Coast region, is home to two powerhouse wine families from opposite sides of the world now entwined by marriage. Sarah Ahmed chats with Australian wine legend Brian Croser and his son-in-law Xavier Bizot of the |
Aromas of red and black currants, black cherries, rosemary stem and thyme. Medium- to full-bodied with silky, chewy tannins. Nicely defined red and black fruit on the palate. Fresh and articulate with a juicy finish. Drink or hold.
93 points…
Bright and youthful in the glass. Complex aromas of cedar, tobacco, blackcurrant, dark cherry, bramble aA whale-sized price-tag, but given energy inflation, in time it will be less than a KW of electricity. At any time it is positively lovely …
| What these wines unequivocally showed is that the Croser vision for grand Australian wines has come to reality. |
The sharp-minded, deliberate and controversial Brian Croser has been a forceful and polarising advocate of Australia’s fine wine …
Bright and youthful in the glass. Complex aromas of cedar, tobacco, blackcurrant, dark cherry, bramble and spice. Lovely, pure and precise on the palate, mid to full-bodied, long, layered and complex. Plenty of red and dark fruits, textured tannins, cedar …
Deep coloured, this is a decadent yet complex Merlot blend with lashings of rich blackberry, chocolate, cedar, black olive and earthy aromas wrapped up in a blanket of high quality French oak. It’s bold too, with impressive impact of sweet …
This a spectacular Aussie claret style; poised, focused and built for the long haul with its powerful blackberry, chocolate, blackcurrant, gravel aromas that are muscular and dense. Fantastic volume of fruit follows but all kept in check by layers of …
65/35% merlot/cabernet franc. Matured 18 months in French oak barriques (50% new). A warm year and a generous expression of fruit which sets the scene for some enjoyable drinking. Redcurrant, black cherry, fennel seed, red licorice, raspberry and pepper work …
86/14% cabernet sauvignon/shiraz. Matured 18 months in French oak barriques (50% new). The 2018 vintage was the second warmest on record after 2016. A ripe year has undoubtedly imparted more warmth and roundness to this wine, but it remains resolutely …
Medium to deep ruby colour with purple tinges. The bouquet is oaky and pungent, with some camphor and mint-eucalypt forest overtones, the palate a bit rasping and astringent when first poured, with the flavours turning to polished leather, red fruits …
A rarity, I guess. There is just this single release from Tapanappa’s Whalebone Vineyard in 2020 as there was just 8 tonnes of grapes harvested due to crap flowering. Who’d want to be a grapegrower, eh? It’s a whole vineyard …
Deep crimson in colour followed by a compact and concentrated unashamedly claret stye with structure, fruit focus and longevity keys to its success. Robust blackberry, blackcurrant fruits to start well supported by spicy oak, then building with mulberry and graphite …
Signature Wrattonbully, from menthol-tinted aromatics and cassis-defined palate to fine-grained, powdery, chalk-dusted tannins. A cool season heightens tang, freshness, endurance and beauty. Everything works together confidently for a future as long as the cork holds out. …
A cooler season works its magic, lifting the violet perfume of cabernet, the black pepper of shiraz, the bright tang of acidity and the fine-ground energy of enduring, chalk-bound tannins. Regional menthol assumes its rightful place. Medium-bodied effortlessness is refreshing. …
Brian Croser’s vision of a great Right Bank Bordeaux, realised. Or at least that’s the drift with this Tapanappa Whalebone Vineyard Merlot Cabernet Franc 2017. Sometimes this Wrattonbully red can seem too ripe and too ambitious, but it feels rather …
Lots going on here. Huge perfume of ripe plum, sage, violets, pot pourri, cedar. The palate is plush, jubey, lush, soft, lots of ripe fruit, a lick of minty green herbs, some rose hip tea and a late wash of …
Seaspray, seaweed scents, a dusting of clove, cassis, some eucalyptus too. Evocative perfume. Dark fruit flavours, more of the salty, seaweed thing to taste, some saltbush greenery too, chewy, clove-y oak laid on with late coming tannins building to a …
Deep red colour with a trace of purple and the bouquet has a gun-smoky, black olive, roasted-fruit bouquet, the palate full-bodied and chewy with assertive, slightly bitter tannins that leave a hefty chew on the aftertaste. A quite heavy, thick-textured …
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