$295/bottle under the original label
Lot 350 | 2019 Adelaide Hills Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was produced by rockstar winemaker Shane Harris for Geoff Hardy's 2019 Tzimmukin program. This is their most expensive and iconic wine, selling for $295/bottle in Australia. We were allowed the privilege of purchasing just 80 cases of this magnificent wine (I had to buy quite a bit of 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon to get my hands on it :-).
This is the priciest wine I have ever offered in the Lot program, but it's worth every penny.
You've likely never heard of Shane Harris but he's a legend in Australia. In 2012, 2018 and 2021, he was named Australian Winemaker of the Year by Australia’s leading wine industry publication, Winestate Magazine (Australia's version of the Wine Spectator). In 2012 and 2014, Wines by Geoff Hardy was also named Winestate Magazine’s Australian Wine Company of the Year, an award based on individual wine scores throughout the year. Shane also played an important role in earning the company’s five red star rating in James Halliday’s Wine Companion, a top rating only awarded to 10% of Australian wineries. The 2016 Tzimmukin was named as one of the Top 10 red blends by The Real Review.
Only produced in special vintages (the last being 2016), the Tzimmukin is made from partially air-dried grapes from the best parcels of their K-1 estate vineyard in the rolling Adelaide Hills region. In the past, the wine has been a blend of Cabernet and Shiraz but, in 2019, they decided to do 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
The wine was originally presented to us at our epic two-day 500 wines tasting and, I'll admit, at first I didn't get it. It had a concave bouquet, was supremely tightly wound and simply impenetrable on the palate. Still, I thought, there is gobs of structure and potential here - lets see where this goes.
Sure enough, the next day the bouquet had really started to bloom and we spent the next several days watching this wine come to life. By the end of the week it was really singing, and I decided then and there it would be assigned as Lot 350.
The wine arrives next month but here are my notes from a recent tasting of one of the samples I brought home with me last Summer.
Day One: deep purple in the glass with just a kiss of ruby around the rim. Tightly wound aromatics with a concave bouquet that draws you donw into the glass but gives up very little. The palate is the same, just a wall of tannins. Nope, let's cork this up and see where it goes...
Couple days later things are looking better...the bouquet is vibrant and sexy with blackberry, mulberry and black cherry interlaced with currant notes that provide lift to the sensuous, rich, high-quality oak. Peppery gumtree, spicy clove and cinnamon florals complex the nose. Vibrant, muscular and sinewy but surprisingly elegant on the palate with beautifully-integrated, minerally tannins interlaced with black and red fruits in a big, lush, palate-staining finish with big, chalky length and resounding fruit that echoes for a good minute or more. Wow. With pinpoint precision, seamless, ethereal structure and exquisite balance, this is a truly Epic wine!
Adelaide Hills K1 vineyards, 100% Estate Vineyards
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
65% new French oak, 20-months
30-year DIAM closure
80 cases imported
Bottled Summer 2021
