Saturday, September 27, 2008

Houghton Jack Mann Cabernet Sauvignon

While you are on a good thing, I thought why not open another major Western Australian Cabernet. It is the 1998 Jack Mann. Now I was really interested in this. Houghton was known in the 90s to make fairly average, high volume wines. Then came great reviews of the 98 Jack Mann, their relatively rare flagship wine. So I bought three bottles of this expensive wine. It was thought to be huge, therefore I left it in the cellar until now. Would it be as good as Cullen or Moss Wood?

The critics were right. This is a big wine with great blackcurrant and redcurrant fruit. The wine is very concentrated and quite a blast off initially. The wine still feels young and will have a lot more life in it. It fills the mouth easily and has a long finish on the back of big tannins - a very masculine wine. How good is it? Well, it is a substantial wine and certainly has the right ingredients. However, it is not as elegant and well rounded as the other two wines I tried a couple of days ago. The wine making goes with Cullen and Moss Wood, probably helped by many years of top level results. However, I will enjoy the remaining two bottles of Jack Mann in a few years time.

No comments: