2019 Balnaves The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

With 3.6% petit verdot. Left 3 weeks on skins, matured for 18 months in French oak (52% new). Released as a 5yo wine, the Tally has built a reputation over the years as a Coonawarra icon. Concentrated, brooding and dense, this is firmly on the midnight spectrum: by that, I mean blackberries, licorice, mulberries, aniseed, cigar box and graphite. The tannins that shape the affair are fine and omnipresent, and they come with that extra flex of chewy salted licorice. There is so much to masticate on here as the wine lingers through the finish. It is glorious.

Erin Larkin

Published 16 August 2022

Deep rich red in colour, the nose is perfumed with perfectly ripened dark blackberry, mulberry and cassis fruit, and fine vanillan/coffee bean French oak. The palate is rich with fleshy cassis and blackberry fruit. The finish is long and textured with fine grainy grape tannins. This wine is complex and tightly structured and made to cellar with confidence. We recommend decanting before drinking." - Balnaves