2017 Cabernet Sauvignon Pritchard Hill

The flagship 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is a brilliant, brilliant wine. Beautiful cassis, tobacco, leaf, chocolate, lead pencil, and a beautiful sense of minerality all emerge from the glass. This beauty is full-bodied, concentrated, and opulent on the palate, yet also delineated and pure, with stunning tannins. It’s rare to find this level of purity and precision in 2017, but this beauty never puts a foot wrong. I’d happily drink bottles today, yet it’s going to be best with 4-6 years of bottle age and I suspect still be glorious at age 30.

Bryant's 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is going to need time to come into its own - the tannins are pretty imposing at this stage, which makes the wine feel compact. Sage, tobacco, menthol, licorice, gravel and incense emerge, but only with great reluctance. There is just no way to get around the challenges of the growing season. A powerful, exotically ripe wine lies behind all of that tannin. It will be interesting to see if those qualities fully emerge over time.

Composed of 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon was aged in French oak, 100% new, and bottled in July 2019. Very deep purple-black in color, it needs a little coaxing to reveal wonderfully pure black cherry compote, cassis and black raspberry scents with touches of cedar chest, pencil lead, black olives and cardamom plus a waft of red roses. Full-bodied, the palate has great concentration and depth, with a solid backbone of ripe, grainy tannins and loads of freshness injecting energy into the black fruit and savory layers, finishing on a persistent mineral note. This is a truly gorgeous 2017! 443 cases were made.