Ansted & Osicka 1970 Block Balgownie Cabernet Sauvignon 2025
Ansted & Osicka 1970 Block Balgownie Cabernet Sauvignon 2025
$60, 13.7% alcohol, screwcap, Bendigo.
This is a wine with a special story, as outlined in the [Ansted & Osicka 1970 Block Balgownie Cabernet Sauvignon 2022] review. The [Ansted & Osicka 1970 Block Balgownie Cabernet Sauvignon 2024] was also reviewed to these pages. I’m sad to report that this 2025 is the final vintage; the land has been sold, and its future is not as a vineyard. Australian wine will be all the lesser. As lovers of Australian wine, we should be laying down in front of the tractors.
As the name suggests, this wine is grown on a vineyard that was planted to Cabernet Sauvignon in 1970. This vineyard has a rich history; it has always grown great cabernet. More simply, it’s always been a great vineyard. When it’s gone, we will mourn.
This is your last chance to purchase a slice of Australian wine history. At $60 it’s an absolute snip; it’s worth thrice that, all things considered. It’s a medium-weight wine of firmness and length. It’s exactly what Cabernet Sauvignon should be. It tastes of blackcurrant, red licorice, iodine, saltbush, vanilla, an array of herbs and twiggy spice notes; it even carries a whisper of graphite. It’s so firm and yet so at-ease with its firmness. It’s beautifully long; the finish here is one seductive, sinewy sashay. You can drink this now; it has the balance. But if you stuck this in the cellar it would still be drinking beautifully in 25 years time – long after the rows of new houses have turned to crap. 96 points – Campbell Mattinson.
