J.B. Barry Clarevale Cabernet Malbec 2021

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of J.B. Barry Clarevale Cabernet Malbec 2021.

J.B. Barry Clarevale Cabernet Malbec 2021
$400, 13.3% alcohol, screwcap, Clare Valley.

Welcome to the new-old world of great Australian dry red wine. This wine can be placed in the cellar under the heading Legend of the Future. Indeed if this wasn’t a new release, I’d say of this wine that they don’t make them like this anymore. What I’m trying to say is: this Clare Valley Cabernet Malbec is dry, deep, stern, tannic, long and profound, and it is without any overt sign of oak, or excess of alcohol, and it is in the most uncompromised of ways. It’s a firm, deep, I-don’t-care-about-now wine. It has an elegance too, I dare say, but the way profound fruit is presented fresh, and the way tannin is completely let off the chain, is magnificent. Don’t buy it as a birth year wine for your kids. Buy it as a birth year wine for your grandkids. 97 points.

Campbell Mattinson

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He founded The Winefront, is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion (and former editor of Halliday magazine), and is the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He is 100% independent, and tastes between 5,000 and 10,000 wines each year, blind and in comparative brackets as often as is practicable.

More about Campbell Mattinson

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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