2021 Elderton, Cabernet Sauvignon, Estate Vineyards, Barossa Valley, Australia.
The deep, dark purple/garnet and complex 2021 Elderton Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon is made from grapes sourced at their Nuriootpa and Craneford estate vineyards, making for a rich full bodied effort with a wonderful depth of fruit and nice balanced mouth feel and long finish pushed on and on by polished tannins. This Cab has a distinctive array of blackberry, blueberry, currant, plum and dark cherry fruit on the luxurious palate along with hints of violets, creme de cassis, licorice, dried rosemary, mocha/vanilla, menthol and cedary wood notes. What I really am impressed with is the low heat impact, acidity and the subtle loam and savory undertones that keep things from being too much, allowing this wine to be a nicely behaved company with a meal. Elderton has a fine collection of clonal material and vineyards, including some higher elevation parcels, as well as soil diversity with sandy loams, red and brown clay and black cracking clay, all of which infused their wines with complexity, lift and Barossa’s powerful concentration of fruit. I have followed Elderton bottlings since some late 1990s efforts, in particular the Shiraz, which a sexy and robust and I highly recommend them for those exploring Barossa Valley wines
Winemakers Jules Ashmead and Brock Harrison at Elderton did a masterful job of taming the tannins, while also delivering loads of extraction, they carefully managed the cap and cool fermented the Cabernet Sauvignon fully dry on the skins before pressing to a combination of used and new French oak barrels where the wine finished malos. After maturing in barrel, almost until bottling, the lots were blended to best capture the vintage and and provide for that balance of flavors and form, which in this case was exceptional, as the wine feels perfectly proportioned and full of character. I have always enjoyed Elderton, especially their Shiraz offerings, and the wines are very fairly priced for the quality seen in the bottle. The Elderton estate was, as the winery notes, was first planted on the banks of the North Para River in Nuriootpa in 1894 by early German settlers, the Scholz family. In 1916, it was purchased by Samuel Elderton Tolley who named the Estate Elderton, but eventually the property was left almost lost and in ruins until the Ashmead family took over and created the Elderton label in 1982 and since then things have been on the right track, as the current wines show. The highlights at Elderton include their single vineyard and signature Command Shiraz, one of Australia’s elite wines, along with Penfold’s Grange and Henschke’s Hill of Grace!
($35 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive