2016 Peter Michael, Les Pavots, Knights Valley

Blackberries, blueberries, raspberry kir, sweet tobacco and black truffle. Full bodied with chewy tannins and superb texture and length. Extremely poised and powerful. Finishes with so much fresh leather and blueberries. Goes on for minutes. Try after 2023.

A solid step up, the 2016 Les Pavots comes from vines planted in 1989 and is a mix of two separate sites in Knights Valley. This straight-up phenomenal Cabernet offers a powerful nose of ripe black fruits, tobacco leaf, chocolate, and spring flowers, and it has a Margaux-like complexity and elegance. Full-bodied on the palate, it has a multi-dimensional, seamless texture, building tannins, and a great, great finish. It’s a baby of a wine that needs 4-5 years of bottle age, but it will probably merit a triple-digit score in 7-8 years and keep for three decades.

A good dose of rainfall aided the drought in 2016, however it resulted in uneven fruit-set and therefore a small crop. The vintage was overall slightly cooler than average, which provided a delicate and bright profile for the wines. This is an ideal pairing for a braised rabbit ragu served with handmade pappardelle pasta. It has a lively array of freshly picked red rose and lilac aromas, with flavours of blackberry pie with a toasted crust, black tea and vanilla. Electric and satisfying layers of rich tannins and fruit decorate the landscape.