Buller Black Dog Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

Victoria, Australia
Alcohol: 14.5%
Available in private stores only ($20.60+)

Much of the state of Victoria in Australia can be considered a “cooler” climate, but only in the context of Australia, where “cooler” seems to mean hot only some of the time. Joking aside, many of the best wine regions in Victoria are cooler than the best regions in South Australis, such as the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. This allows them to shine with different grapes (e.g., Pinot Noir in the Yarra Valley) and to create wines with different styles from other regions in Australia.

Buller is an established producer (since 1921) in Rutherglen, a small town along the Victoria-New South Wales border that has been long known for its fortified wines (“stickies” in the Australian vernacular). (When I visited in the early 1980s, there was a billboard at the entrance to the town proclaiming that “Sydney may have a great harbour, but Rutherglen has a great port”.) Less well known but gaining attention are the table wines. The Black Dog Creek line (named after a creek on the Buller property) gives us a choice of the Cabernet, a Shiraz, and a Chardonnay, all at a reasonable price.

This wine is a nice Cabernet Sauvignon, with out getting too crazy in style or price. It is a dark ruby colour, with plenty of purple and some brick colour on the rim. It smells of raspberries and other red fruits, plus some tones of earth, cedar, and vanilla. In the mouth, it is full bodied, with soft tannins and a good dose of acid. The raspberries and cedar are even clearer in the mouth than on the nose. There is a the typical Cabernet Sauvignon doughnut, with strong flavours at the start, followed by a drop in the middle and then a good finish that lingers for a while with noticeable alcohol that, in this case, is balanced by the fruit.

This is no “fruit bomb”, with a tad more depth and maturity than expected. The brick colour tones, and some of the flavours (cedar and earthiness) indicate enough age to make me think that this wine is probably near its peak, so grab a bottle and enjoy it before the end of the year.