Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2012

Moss Wood cabernet, going way back, taught Australian wine enthusiasts the meaning of the words "superfine tannins". It's long been a wine of soft, seductive power, usually to the point where the more structural elements are difficult to discern, like a crow bar buried among a mountain of pillows. Take the crow bar away and the bed seems much the same; though of course it's not. In recent years I've wondered where the crow bar has gone, even though the manchester of oak has never been more opulent. Here though with this 2012 tannin is back in town, assertive now, as if eager to make up for lost time. It feels like a completely different bed. It tastes more or less the same: blackcurrant, cranberry, mulberry and smoky cedar, with the prettiness of violets and the sweet surging seduction of redcurrant adding velocity as much as power. Both the wave and the undertow. It gives the wine an authority that's been missing. In fruit terms it's not drowning, it's saving. It has all the ropes and power and movement. I'm not certain it's entirely in balance but in the midst of excitement, I'm not certain I entirely care. CAMPBELL MATTINSON the winefront