*Top 100 Wines of Australia 2020* A blend of 57% Cabernet Sauvignon and 43% Shiraz, this has a very impressively complete feel, a hallmark of the 2018 vintage wines, and there’s a myriad of characters with cabernet’s cedary and gently herbal notes sitting atop a core of rich red-plum and dark-berry Shiraz fruit aromas. So integrated. The palate has a very silky texture, so plush and polished with a wealth of rich and intense dark-plum, dark-berry and blackcurrant flavors. The oak is completely soaked with ripe, fresh fruit. This is a great Bin 389.

Confident Cabernet (57%) leads this high-spirited, swirling dance, as a breezy wisp of blue and black berries waft over the earthy bulk of sturdy Shiraz. It’s a clever trick for such bright fruit to be contained by tannins in an interlocked embrace, without smothering the obvious exuberance of this marriage. Supple and nimble, it keeps shifting and changing in the glass. A truly beautiful blend.

Deep violet color. Cherry-cola, cassis, pipe tobacco, coconut and cured tobacco on the highly perfumed, smoke- and spice-accented nose. Sappy and impressively concentrated, offering an array of red and dark fruit preserve and spice flavors and hints of licorice, mocha and candied flowers. Closes very long and gently chewy, with resonating spiciness and slowly building tannins that add subtle grip.

Hints of toasted coconut accent big cassis aromas on the nose of the 2018 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz, which is a 57-43 blend this vintage. Full-bodied, with cherry flesh complementing the sterner cassis and tobacco notes, it's supple enough to be approachable now, yet with the concentration and requisite dusty tannins on the long finish to support more than a decade of aging.

Polished and generous, oozing with details of blackberry pie, Earl Grey tea, black licorice, star anise and dried lavender, with more savory notes of cigar box, rosemary, cassis and black pepper. Accents of cream soda and salted caramel linger on the finish.