2016 Shottesbrooke Cabernet Sauvignon Langhorne Creek Australia 750 ml

The Sommeliers’ Wine of the Night

When the 2016 Shottesbrook Cabernet Sauvignon won us over during our Napa tasting group, we didn’t have the wine’s 95-point score clouding our judgement—instead we were tasting it blind, which made our stoic sommelier friends’ reaction even more impressive.

What had started off as a fairly run-of-the-mill Cabernet-focused evening (lots of discussions about tannins, oak, and a particularly in-depth parsing of the differences between cassis and kirsch) suddenly turned into a contest about who could come up with the most appropriate superlatives for what everyone knew immediately would be their wine of the night: Someone suggested “fantopulent.” Someone else said “spectaculicious.”

We just shook our heads, watching our ordinarily jaded friends compete to out-do one another, and started formulating our plan to be able to offer the 2016 Shottesbrooke Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon to our members at Wine Access. A week later, we had a deal. Today, we’re proud to offer some of the only cases that made it to the United States.

Shottesbrook’s first vines were planted back in the early 1980s, and since then, they’ve been quietly crafting some of the most exciting wines in Australia. This particular one is uniquely well-suited to its appellation: Langhorne Creek has some of the oldest Cab vines on the planet, and the variety is impeccably adapted to this South Australian terroir.

In 2016, that meant a wine of incredible complexity and achievement that James Halliday, the dean of Australian wine writers, praised in his 95-point review for its “fragrant eucalypt nuances that accompany the fresh cassis of the palate…The finely spun tannins are a feature of a medium-bodied Cabernet made to be drunk whenever the idea pleases you.” Just like us, our tasting panel was utterly transported by the Shottesbrooke’s opulent aromas of blackberries, violets, and lilacs and flavors of dark cocoa, espresso, and juicy berries.

Later that night, as our colleagues continued to sniff and swirl the Shottesbrooke, they pressed us on what we tasted: “What do we taste?” we asked. “Easy. The next Wine Access best-seller. So enjoy it now—we plan on snapping up every bottle left in the US!”

We keep our word and got all we could. But with this price-to-score ratio, it’s sure to fly. So our apologies to the other somms who were there that evening: If you want more, you’ll have to pick some up right here.