2012 Woodlands ‘Thomas’ Cabernet Sauvignon

97 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion

“Cabernet plus 3% malbec and 1% cabernet franc is matured for 21 months in 100% new French oak. Bright crimson; the wine nearly escapes under the radar, until it starts accelerating on the mid-palate and hurtles through the finish and aftertaste, drawing saliva as the intensity of cassis, earth, black olive and cedar spear through the mouth.”

96 Points - Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

“Given the slightly more than vague similarities between the labels, I was inspired to open a bottle of 2010 Chateau Pichon-Lalande, to see where this wine sits, to benchmark, with an international perspective. It’s not a hard job, sometimes. So how did it compare? Favourably, though while it’s a fractionally lesser wine in terms of depth, quality of tannin (and oak), it does have amazing perfume and supple charm. On the upside too, the Woodlands is about $250 cheaper. A healthy serve of toasty clove spice oak, violet perfume, red and black fruits, sage, dark peppermint chocolate and tobacco. Medium to full bodied, the dark chocolate/tobacco thing really plays out on the palate – almost dramatic – with supple and dense fine grained tannin, freshness and definition, and a very long finish. No question of it, this is in the highest echelon of Cabernet, from anywhere. Superb.”