Wendouree is among Australia’s most sought after wines. This mythical Clare Valley estate has no website, no cellar door and they rarely answer the phone but do sometimes respond to letters.
The first vineyards were planted back in 1892/3 by the Birks family so we’re talking some seriously old vines here. The Birks’ owned the estate until 1974 when Tony & Lita Brady acquired it. Since then they have transformed the estate into a revolutionary yet classically Clare Valley institution. Roly Birks stayed on as winemaker until 1980.
Alfred Percy Birks ‘AP Birks’ and his brothers started planting in 1892 with a 0.2Ha block of Cabernet Sauvignon and then subsequent Birks generations planted a raft of different varieties; Shiraz in 1911 and more Cabernet in 1971, eventually ending up with 50Ha of vines in total.
96 Points Huon Hooke
Deep but not very dark colour; the bouquet very cabernet, with clean, fresh, very varietal blackcurrants and a leafy high-note. A concentrated wine of great depth and masses of tannin. It’s quite firm and solid, an impressive wine of tremendous length. Lively acidity gives firmness and nerve. A very long-term aging wine. Drink: 2015-2048.
97 Points Halliday Wine Companion
Deep, healthy crimson-purple; the Wendouree blends bring wonderful complexity to the table, but this wine in particular brings purity, its flood of cassis fruit on the bouquet and palate awesomely mouthwatering and drawn out, not trimmed back by the brambly, savoury tannins. If there is better tannin structure in an Australian cabernet, I am yet to see it. Drink by 2062.