ELDERTON Ode to Lorraine Cabernet Blend 2019

Robert Parker Score: 92 points

Reviewer: Erin Larkin — April 2023 Week 16 Apr 2023

Drink 2023–2034

The 2019 Ode To Lorraine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (47%), Shiraz (46%) and Merlot (7%), all of it grown on the estate vineyard in Nuriootpa. The vines are between 15 and 75 years old, and the wine was matured for 24 months in French oak (15% new). On the nose, this is typically elegant, fine-boned and brambly (precisely how I remember it from tasting it at the estate) and follows through with this profile in the mouth, and through the finish. The characters lean toward smokehouse almonds, toffee, resin and cassis, with tobacco leaf, earth and green peppercorns. This has an interesting paradox of lighter, early-pick leafy characters, and it is full-bodied, with 14.8% alcohol.