99
// Andrew Caillard MW
"Deep crimson. A wonderfully evocative wine. Fragrant pure blackcurrant, dark cherry aromas with integrated praline mocha, roasted chestnut notes and touches of sage and violet. Beautifully concentrated wine with voluminous blackcurrant, dark cherry, mulberry fruits, plentiful fine grainy al dente tannins, superb dark chocolate, mocha, espresso complexity and underlying chinotto sage notes. Finishes grainy/ cedar firm with pure cassis, kirsch notes and a plume of extract. Elegant, powerful and expansive with the structure and balance for long term aging; the fruit, tannin, oak and acidity are beautifully integrated."
98
// Ray Jordan
"Oh my, this is such a good wine – as good as any that have been released under this label. It is remarkable that a wine of such finesse and refinement should also have such power and drive. But that’s Coonawarra in a good year, managed with first rate winemaking after the viticulturist has delivered the fruit. Has a slightly liqueur cherry aroma with cool leaf and tobacco leaf nuances. The palate is sublime with the fine weave of tannin, fine grained oak and silky-smooth fruit. As you might expect it is still a little shy and closed but decanting will give you a glimpse of what it will become."
98
// Huon Hooke
"With a very deep, brooding purple/red Colour, it has a remarkably complex, savoury bouquet of beautifully integrated fruit and oak, very ripe cabernet aromas with no leafy herbal accents and lots of dark fruit, blackberry and cassis interwined with cedar, smoky bacon and graphite nuances. Almost decadenly rich and fleshy, it's full-bodied and loaded with extract, the abundant tannins supple and suberbly knitted into the fabric of the wine. A glorious cabernet."
98
// Tony Love
"Wynns’ flagship cabernet, selected from the best estate vineyards and refined even further from the top one per cent of the harvest. Without question, this wine exhibits the most elite nuances imaginable of dark berry and mint chocolate aromatics and flavours, enhanced by an exciting tension in the palate with energetic acidity pulsating underneath and lively tannins offering support from the sidelines as all the elements swell with promise and delight with immediate pleasure. The structures here suggest extraordinary longevity. Top of the tree."
98
// Ken Gargett – Winepilot.com
"This is Wynn’s flagship wine and justifiably so. Not made every year, as the vintage has to be a good one, it stills manages to sit comfortably with the best cabernets made in this country, and has done so since the very first vintage back in 1982. It is a wine that has great longevity. 2018 is a great vintage for John Riddoch. So careful are Wynn’s with this wine that only the best grapes are used – less than one percent of their finest cabernet qualifies as suitable for the John Riddoch. The wine is utterly seamless with a supple creamy texture. Notes of chocolate, blackberries and mint, florals and even the merest hint of red berries. This is certainly the most refined wine in the Collection. It is both elegant and powerful, a very fine line to tread. The intensity is maintained throughout with good acidity and very fine, silky tannins. An exquisite cabernet, one of Australia’s best."