Robert Parker Wine Advocate Reviews - by Erin Larkin

The 2019 Budworth Cabernet Sauvignon hails from a considerably cooler year than its inception vintage, 2018. The fruit, as a result, is finer and darker than the powerful wine from the 2018 vintage. Here, the fruit expresses with salted liquorice, dark chocolate, graphite, tobacco, blackberry, cassis, bay leaf, iodine and red dirt. In the mouth, the Frankland River fruit dutifully fills the middle palate with intense flavour, while the tannins that shape it are pliable and ductile. This is a lovely wine, altogether different from the first vintage and wonderful for it. The oak is present, make no mistake, but it sits very well in the mouth. Impressive wine.

 

The 2021 Riversdale Merlot Cabernet Franc is composed of Merlot, clone 181 (60%) and Cabernet Franc, clone 337 (40%). It's ultra fine in the mouth, with intense tannins and purple fruit. Lingering and super pretty, this is balanced and floral, with raw cocoa, raspberry pip and violets, garden roses and sandalwood. I have to say, I really love how this feels in the mouth. It is pliable and a little gritty, ductile and lingering, and it flows effortlessly across the palate. What a wine. A pleasure.

 

The 2021 Riversdale Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec/Petit Verdot/Cabernet Franc hails from the Riversdale vineyard in Frankland River and comprises 58% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Malbec, 14% Petite Verdot and 14% Petit Verdot. In the mouth, the tannins are the highlight; they're supple and subtle within the folds of fruit flavour, while the oak is perceptible but seamlessly in balance with all other aspects of the wine. It's a package, wrapped and folded with origami precision and presented with elegance and balance at every turn. It's rather astoundingly good and a bold statement about the potential of Frankland River as one of Western Australia's great Cabernet regions. Never in doubt.

 

The 2021 Uovo Frankland River Cabernet Touriga is pretty, but it's different. There are green inflections throughout, and it is brambly and floral, with blonde tobacco and resin, bergamot and black tea, garden roses and mandarin peel, plus violets and liquorice as well as freshly turned earth and ground metal, ash and concrete. It's a beautiful wine, but some aspects will polarize some drinkers.

 

The 2019 Uovo Frankland River Cabernet Nebbiolo comprises egg-fermented Cabernet Sauvignon and Nebbiolo. A formidable duo when it comes to tannins, yet here the impact has been softened by the vessel, leaving a floral, ashy, earthy sort of character in its wake. It is mineral and delicate, with pressed flowers, coal dust, black tea, cassis, bramble and raspberry pip. It is elegant and fine, and at five years old, it is possessed of admirable composure and restraint.

 

The 2021 The Yard Riversdale Cabernet Sauvignon leads with sweet toasty oak, cassis and bramble, cocoa and liquorice. The wine is supple and yet firm in the mouth, with a tranche of tannin and exotic spice through the finish.

 

The 2019 Frankland River Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from the estate-owned Riversdale vineyard, which is a remarkable place, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, with a vast, open-sky feel to it. The wine is layered with smoky peat and tapenade, black berries, lichen and iron, iodine and pan drippings. Dried bay leaf and cocoa round out the finish. It's in a quiet place for now, with no doubt a long future ahead of it.