Penley Estate

Helios Cabernet Sauvignon 2015

The high-shouldered brown glass bottle, with the far extreme of minimalist labelling (the statutory requirements of vintage and alcohol on a detachable neck label) is doubtless calculated to attract discussion. So should the ravishing cabernet made by Yarra Valley winemaker Kate Goodman. It's only medium-bodied, but its intensity is of a scale seldom encountered. The cassis fruit is the ruby set in a necklace of bay leaf and superbly honed tannins. A vineyard bursting into song after 30 years of silence. - James Halliday