Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignon 2009

Few Australian Cabernets are made with the sheer stubbornness of Domaine A's — this is a house whose guiding principle is "if the fruit isn't perfect, the wine doesn't get made," and the 2009 is a case study in what that patience buys. A classic Bordeaux-blend build of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot off the single 11-hectare vineyard's ancient dolerite soil, matured through large oak and barrique at 13.5% alcohol, it opens on an almost reductive edge that blows off into red and black currant, cranberry, menthol, nougat and dried tomato. The palate is where the Coal River Valley's cool, slow ripening really shows: powerful in extract but fine-grained and precise, with ripe, resilient tannin and a dry, restrained finish. 

Closer in structure and restraint to a serious Left Bank Bordeaux than to anything from the mainland, and a genuine rarity given Domaine A's tiny, hand-worked production. Sixteen years on from vintage it's entering a beautiful drinking window, but there's no urgency to move it — it will happily go the distance. Decant it, give it real time in the glass, and put it in front of anyone who needs converting to the idea that Tasmania makes serious red wine.