Clair Valley – $65.00
The fruit for The Pastor Cabernet Malbec was picked and fermented separately to small batches before blending.
Had a glass or two and found it to be well made with Malbec dominant on the plate providing the fruit and the Cabernet the drying structure and body of the wine, however after an hour in the decanter the wine was struggling to show it’s self so I put the cap back on and left it to open overnight.
The next day the wine had opened to show a dark olive character that was not so prevalent yesterday along with a rich savoury fruit finish, warm with alcohol.
The wine has opened up to show itself as a full to medium-bodied style showing some dusty complexity and drying ripe fruit tannins more in a European style rather than Australian, with flavours of earth intermingled with dark blue fruit.
This wine is in need of food and I really think – An Australian lamb stew with diced potatoes, sultanas and pine nuts, forget the fancy spices, something rich and juicy to match the power and general old fashion grunt of this wine.
The wine will develop with further bottle age, I personally would give it 1 or 2 more years before I started opening them, then drink them for the next 5 to10 years.
But that’s just my guess.
Michael Lillis
