St Hugo Wines

St Hugo Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Award
Winner Blue Gold Medium Bodied Dry Red Wines
Grape Varieties
Cabernet Sauvignon (100%) Coonawarra, SA, Australia
Country of Origin
Australia
Alcohol Content
13.8% Alcohol by Volume
Wine Type and Oak Treatment
Still Red with Oak Treatment
Recommended Retail Price
RRP AU $50.00
  • St Hugo Wines
    PO Box 943
    Rowland Flat, SA
    Australia 5352
  • Susan Newcombe, Wine Show Coordinator
  • Phone (61) 0 8521 3128

Complex with some attractive black currant intensity. Ripe but with freshness . Well balanced palate with a freshness but with complexity and poise. This dish looks to work well with the Cabernet family. Lovely pose and lightness on its feet.

Pronounced blue and cassis fruits with a dusting of choc-mint on the nose. The palate is medium bodied and dry and cool with fresh acidity and compact blue and plum fruits with note of mint leaf and hint of smoky mocha on the firm tannins. The blue fruits and mint elements are brought to the fore with the addition of food but the dish also exacerbates the rawness of the oak throwing the wine and palate out of balance.

Bolder, ripe-fruited nose with rich berry fruit, plums, cedar and a touch of mint chocolate, palate is plush with rounded but firm tannins, fresh acidity and good length. Looked disjoined with the duck.

Deep cherry colour. Mint and herbs on the nose, with earth/forest floor and black olive. Woodsy flavours, some mint, liquorice and cherry/currant essence. Medium acidity, firm tannins. With food: Wine tannins are a little too dry for the duck.

Mid red, lifted chocolate and eucalypt nose, firm dry tannins with black fruits.

Deep ruby. Intense blackcurrant fruits with fresh herbs. Complex cedar wood aromas. Flavours of blackcurrant and leafy notes with lots of sandy mouth coating tannin. Great length needs time for tannin to integrate. Makes the wine slightly bitter.

Cherry spice, some graphite edge, some toast. SOP, thins out, lacks concentration, hard and drying tannins. Food: made the tannins appear to be more extracted.

The Medium Bodied Dry Red Wines were judged with

Duck breast, Parsnip Puree and Radicchio

Presented by chef Marcell Kustos

Ingredients

  • 1 Duck breast/person, sous-vide at 57C
  • 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 bag English breakfast tea
Parsnip puree, serves 4:
  • 500 g parsnip, roasted at 180C for 15 min and cooked in 300 mL soy milk (reserve 200 mL cooking soy milk)
  • 50 g peanut butter
  • Salt
  • ½ tsp garam masala
Radicchio, serves 4:
  • 1 radicchio, quartered, white (bitter) part removed, thinly sliced
  • 300 mL pomegranate juice + sous-vide duck broth, reduced to half
  • Add 1 Tbsp oyster sauce, ½ tsp Xanthan gum and mix with stick mixer
  • Cook radicchio in reduced pomegranate syrup until the radicchio is wilted
Served with chive oil:
  • 1 bunch of chive, thinly cut
  • 50 ml olive oil, warm in microwave 10 s

Method

  1. Score duck breast and render fat in a pan with skin-side down on low fire. Bag up the breast with maple syrup, oyster sauce and tea and sous-vide.
  2. Cut the parsnip into 2-3cm pieces and roast until golden brown. Transfer the parsnips into a pot and cook them soy in soy milk. In a food processor, mix all ingredients for the puree. The result should be creamy, slightly nutty, slightly spicy and slightly salty.
  3. Reduce the pomegranate juice with the cooking juices of the duck. Add xanthan and oyster sauce and blend it smooth (velvety) with a stick mixer. The result should be liquid, but thick enough to cover the back of a spoon. Add sliced radicchio and warm them until cooked/wilted.