Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon 2016

James Halliday Top 100 Wines of 2019
Decanter Best Australian Cabernet of 2016

"John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world’s great fine red wines."  Andrew Caillard MW  

First made in 1982, the John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon is the flagship wine of the Wynns portfolio. It is made in small quantities from the best available fruit grown on Wynns Coonawarra Estate's extensive Cabernet plantings. It is produced from the top 1% of available Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and is made only in the years when the grapes are of extraordinarily high quality. It has become the definitive Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon, and is arguably richer and more concentrated than any other wine in the region. Classified 'Exceptional' in Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine, a rating equivalent to an Australian 'First Growth', it is one of the most prized and highly sought-after Australian wines. 

"Lots of lean muscle converts into flavour power: pure blackcurrant and chocolate, sage, plum and espresso, all bound in a graphite tannic grip. Coming from a dryer vintage, the density of serious fruit weight equates to intensity, and the flavor clarity persists and resonates long after the last note strikes. Think of that final piano chord in The Beatles’ A Day In The Life. Captivating!"  Decanter

"Matured for 16 months in new (31%) and seasoned French oak hogheads (65%) and barriques (35%). Intense red/black with great depth and brightness. Plush and juicy ripe cassis flavours combine with a mocha like creaminess from French oak. Beautifully textured. A fine tannin line frames powerful fruit, providing all the hallmarks of a great John Riddoch  Cabernet Sauvignon for the cellar."  Wynns Coonawarra Estate

Expert reviews

"Deep crimson. Lovely pure blackcurrant elderberry herb garden aromas with hints of espresso/ roasted chestnut notes. Beautiful, concentrated wine with blackcurrant elderberry chinotto herb flavours, fine-grained and plentiful yet vigorous tannins, superb mid palate richness and integrated roasted chestnut/ cedar oak notes. Finishes chalky firm with a long inky/ graphite plume. Made for the long haul. Powerfully expressive yet unforced wine with superb vinosity, richness, density and volume. Superb. The fruit derives from the V&A (Victoria & Albert) and Nursery Vineyards, both located on classic terra-rossa soils. From a dry, mild to warm growing season. Wait a few years to let it unfold, 2025-2050."  Andrew Caillard MW - 100 points

"Lots of lean muscle converts into flavour power: pure blackcurrant and chocolate, sage, plum and espresso, all bound in a graphite tannic grip. Coming from a dryer vintage, the density of serious fruit weight equates to intensity, and the flavor clarity persists and resonates long after the last note strikes. Think of that final piano chord in The Beatles’ A Day In The Life. Captivating!"  Decanter - 99 points and Best Australian Cabernet of 2016

"From a tiny fraction (about 1% ) of Wynns' cabernet crush handled with kid gloves in the specialised winery. Densely coloured, its amalgam of cassis and bay leaf is held within a fine web of ripe tannins, the excellent vintage also helping shape a cabernet of the highest class. Drink by 2046."  James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 98 points, Top 100 Wines of 2019 and Special Value Wine  ★ 

"Very deep, youthful, bright purple/red colour, saturated and dense, while the bouquet is deep and latent, ripe and dark-berried, with a lacing of walnutty oak. It's very full-bodied and firm, with abundant tannin and grip. A very big, powerful, yet elegant and well-proportioned cabernet with a big future. The tannins are very firm and very abundant - but they're good tannins and the wine will be long-lived. I'd cellar it for at least five and preferably 10 years. Drink: 2024–2044."  Huon Hooke, The Real Review - 97 points

"These John Riddoch wines are, with each passing year, more approachable, more supple and more lithe on release. Coonawarra has a reputation in Australia for producing extraordinarily long-lived Cabernet Sauvignons, which are not necessarily approachable early. Well. These modern wines buck that trend. The refined oak program has actually done something to support the fruit and elevate it rather than weigh it down - a result of many years of research and work by the Wynns team, particularly winemaker Sarah Pigeon. So, to the wine. This 2016 John Riddoch Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon offers five spice, mulberry, raspberry salted licorice, clove, tobacco leaf, a hint of nag champa tobacco, jasmine tea and brilliant length - I wrote the note off the length. These wines should be measured by their balance, and their ability to age. In this case, also by its beauty as a young wine. Drink it now, but you're better served by exercising a little patience and drinking from 2026 through to the late 2040s and beyond. Drink: 2026–2048."  Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate - 96+ points

"The intention isn’t about making a more concentrated version of the Black Label, this is about best medium bodied wine produced from the top vineyards of Wynns. Alan Jenkins is the long-standing viticulturist at the helm of Wynns renaissance and incremental elevation of wine quality. Vineyard management has cost ‘millions’, as has man hours, and the attention to detail and full suite of viticulture practice is incredible to hear. It makes me think it is a huge part of the ‘Wynns and daylight’ feel to Coonawarra, perhaps. An oft-overlooked power 'couple' is Jenkins and Sue Hodder, let’s say.

Striking bouquet of dark forest berry fruits, dark chocolate, faint garrigue, a touch of eucalyptus and clove-cedar. Slippery texture that slides into a firm corkscrew of tannins. Incredibly silky and full upfront, dark berries, dark chocolate, sweet spice, then the savoury elements turn up and there’s graphite, granite and dried herbs. Serious feeling thing this, with power and grace hand-in-hand. Drink: 2020–2040."  Mike Bennie, The Wine Front - 95+ points

"This is a very impressive and regal cabernet with a rich array of ripe blackcurrants, mulberries and blackberries on offer, as well as a cedary and gently chalky edge. There’s a very rich and powerful core of deep-set fruit, as well as a thread of rich chocolate flavor and a very polished, assertive core of tannin that holds super long. Try from 2022. Screw cap."  James Suckling, Jamessuckling.com - 95 points

"Polished and stylish, it’s scented with violets, cassis, mulberries and tight-grained cedar/vanilla oak, with dusty, chocolatey undertones. ItÕs long and cedary, with layers of vivacious fruit, subtle herbal notes and artfully knit oak deftly supported by firm, crunchy tannins, finishing with drive, polish and fine balance. Drink: 2036-2046+."  Jeremy Oliver - 95 points

Awards

Halliday Top 100 Wines of 2019
Decanter Best Australian Cabernet of 2016
Special Value Wine – Halliday Wine Companion  ★ 

Sue Hodder

Sue Hodder is one of Australia's best-known winemakers. Sue grew up in Alice Springs and began her wine career as a viticulturist before moving into winemaking. She joined Wynns in 1993 as a winemaker under the guidance of Peter Douglas before being appointed senior winemaker in 1998.

Sue celebrated her 30th vintage at Wynn's in May 2022 in the same year that the winery celebrated 40 years of the winery's John Riddoch Cabernet Sauvignon, named after the pioneer who first plated the vineyards back in 1891.

After 30 vintages, Hodder said: "I still have great joy in walking out the back door to our historic triple-gabled winery. While this beautiful building remains largely untouched, we do now use smaller tanks, oak fermenters, different oak barrels, and an optical berry sorter. These winemaking tools just enable us to be more confidently creative. Our winemaking team has had remarkably few changes over the years – we are a family at Wynns, and our house style remains clear.”

Sue Hodder has been the guiding light for Wynns since the nineties, supported by viticultural guru Allen Jenkins and winemaker Sarah Pidgeon. Over the last 20 years the team have overseen a program of revitalizing and replacing the old vines damaged by excessive machine pruning. Since 2002, 300 hectares of vines have been rejuvenated. They have also purchased the best winemaking equipment available, including an optical grape sorter that had "shocking" results, according to Hodder. "The main result is brighter fruit," she says. 

In addition, Sue has initiated a move to open fermentors in the winery and 100% French oak, which together with the viticultural improvements, have resulted in more elegant wines with greater fruit purity and very bright, precise fruit flavours and aromas. 

Sue and Allen were joint winners of the 2010 Gourmet Traveller WINE Winemaker of the Year Award, among many other accolades Sue has picked up in her esteemed career. In 2021 Sue became a Fellow of the Australian Society of Viticulture and Oenology (ASVO) for her outstanding and meritorious contribution to Australian wine

About the winery

What is now Wynns Coonawarra Estate was founded by Scottish pioneer John Riddoch. He planted vineyards in 1891 and built the famous three-gabled winery. By 1897, 89 hectares of vines had been cultivated.  After a promising start, the Coonawarra Fruit Colony (as it was called then) failed to prosper due to its distance from major markets and poor economic conditions. John Riddoch died in 1901 at the age of 73.

In 1951, Melbourne wine merchants Samuel Wynn and his son David purchased Riddoch's original vineyards and winery and renamed the property Wynns Coonawarra Estate. The Wynns family recognised the intrinsic qualities of Coonawarra wines – their richness and intensity of fruit character – and set out to build an independent identity in the region. David took over the winery operations in 1953, and commissioned Melbourne artist Richard Beck to produce a woodcut of the winery facade. This illustration has appeared on every Wynns Coonawarra Estate label since, making it one of Australia's most recognised wine symbols.

Michael Shiraz (then called Hermitage) was a one-off from the 1955 vintage. The outstanding quality of the shiraz in one particular 2,300 litre vat was recognised for its quality, and bottled separately as Michael, named after David's first son. The second release of Michael Shiraz followed many years later in 1990.

Wynns increased its holdings in Coonawarra over the next two decades. By 1981, it was the largest grower in the district with 440 hectares under vine. The first wine bearing John Riddoch's name, the Wynns John Riddoch Cabernet, was produced in 1982.

David Wynn sold Wynns in the early seventies to focus on the Mountadam Venture with his son Adam. Over the last 50 years, Wynns has had many owners and in the new millennium, the company ended up in the vast portfolio of Treasury Wine Estates.

Today, Wynns Coonawarra Estate has 500 hectares of vineyards in Coonawarra and is the region's preeminent wine producer and largest single vineyard holder with the best and longest established vineyard sites in Coonawarra. Its wines are regarded as benchmarks for the district, lauded for their consistent quality, and depth of flavour.