Monday 13 June 2016

Katnook Estate Founder’s Block 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon - Coonawarra

EVEN 120 years ago they reckoned this was
one to "meet the most fastidious palate
GREAT RED WITH A LAMB SHANK CASSEROLE

David Ellis

AWAY back in 1896 when John Riddoch and William Salter made Katnook Estate's first wines in a woolshed on their property in Coonawarra, their Shiraz was looked upon somewhat more propitiously than their inaugural Cabernet Sauvignon.

Today, however, it's the other way around with the company's Founder's Block Cabernet Sauvignon now its biggest seller, and with Shiraz playing a somewhat lesser role. Which to us is all a bit mystifying as their Shiraz is a cracker drop from fruit grown on some of the best of Coonawarra's fabled terra rossa soils, plus even more encouragingly it sells for just $20 a bottle.

And their just-released Katnook Founder's Block Shiraz 2015 is another pearler example, being  all about generous raspberry and plum fruit flavours, varietal pepper and spice overtones, and noticeable but not overwhelming oak.

With that $20 price tag it's great buying for this time of year with a hearty slow-cooked lamb shank casserole… and can perhaps still be summed-up as we recently saw it written about in an historic 120 year old copy of the Border Watch newspaper from 1890, as "most desired and saleable to meet the most fastidious palate."

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