S. Caica 2025 McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon

"A wine that brims with character, the 2025 Cabernet Sauvignon from Simon Caica bursts from the glass with a generous salt-trimmed bouquet of crushed blackberries, dark cherries, cassis, broken oyster shell and liqueur of same, rusty ore, roasted herbs, and warm loamy soil. The wine is, alongside being most alluring overall, filled with both plumply rich fruit tones and fascinating mineral and herbal inflections. Small echoes of wet rock and split wood lend complexity to a wine I am trying my hardest to not think about and just enjoy. The palate is silken, creamily textured on opening with immeasurably refreshing acidity and salinity underlining the fulsome fruit profile. Slightly bucolic yet fully ripe tannins engage in the final third and the wine tapers out with further salty and herbal touches. Ripe, slightly naughty blackcurrant and blackberry, salted plums, thyme and tarragon along with vine-roasted red capsicum, and little touches of vanillin and earthen nuances. St.-Julien in the McClaren Vale. Very fine." — David