There is an element of elusive mystery in the infant years of the most revered and ageworthy of all cabernets. Distinction is denoted more by high-tensile, tightly-wound energy than by overt expressiveness. I cannot recall a Coonawarra cabernet of the past twenty-five years that embodied this as exactingly as John Riddoch 2009. This is, unreservedly, one of the great Riddochs of all time and one of the most precisely honed wines to emerge from the revered terra rossa of Coonawarra in the modern era. It’s shut up like a trap, reluctantly revealing fleeting glimpses of exact blackcurrant fruit that remain encased in a faultless shell of mouth-embracing tannins that assault the senses like 100% cocoa dark chocolate. Persistence is relentless, precision is mind-boggling and longevity brings promise at the very pinnacle of Coonawarra potential. Do not, under any circumstances, approach in the next twenty years, but its true reward will come in no less than thirty. 1 August 2012 release.