First taste: Nick Ryan reviews Wynns’ 2025 release

It is one of the most recognisable labels in Australia and with his first taste of Wynns’ latest release, Nick Ryan says this wine remains as vital to the local industry as ever.

Wynns winemakers Sarah Pidgeon and Sue Hodder.

We humans have always sought safe harbours. When surrounded by chaos we retreat to the comfortably familiar. When high-tech economies wobble, we buy the same shiny stuff the Pharaohs treasured. In a volatile, fractured and hyper-kinetic wine market, we open a bottle of Wynns.

Wynns was built on the foundations established by John Riddoch in the 1890s, when he ripped up the red dirt north of Penola, South Australia, planted fruit trees and vines and established the Coonawarra Fruit Colony. Its flagging winery operations were bought by Samuel Wynn and his son David in 1951; they attached their name to the place, commissioned artist Richard Beck to design a label that would turn the winery’s gabled façade into one of most recognisable symbols in wine and, with the release of their cabernet sauvignon in 1954, added a pillar to the Australian wine canon that remains essential today.

I tasted that 1954 eight years ago and the memory remains vivid. Released six months after the first FJ Holden rolled off the line, and comfortably outliving the Australian automotive industry, it was the colour of an old blood stain at its core, the rims turning orange and the edges transparent. It smelled first of sticks, old leather and camphor before the echoes of dark fruit woke from their slumber. The wine still held good shape thanks to its whispering tannins and lacy acidity. It was a brief glimpse back through time, and the view was lovely.

But the latest releases reviewed here, due to go on sale in the first week of June, show that evolution and refinement are just as important as history at Wynns. Under the carefully considered stewardship of Sue Hodder (surely the finest winemaker Alice Springs ever produced) and Sarah Pidgeon, with viticulturist Ben Harris continuing the extensive vineyard reassessment begun by the legendary Allen Jenkins, Wynns remains as vital and important as ever, a constant reminder that in the famed red dirt of Coonawarra, and behind that distinctive winery facade, cabernet sauvignon has found a safe harbour.

   

WYNNS BLACK LABEL CABERNET ­SAUVIGNON 2023 $45

The famous Black Label now carries the words “The Original”, stating the obvious. Mulberries and blackcurrants, waxed cedar and hickory smoke. A herbal note, more sage than mint. Supple and lithe, a little flesh draped over its bones. Forthright but fine tannins, a detailed acid etching. A cooling freshness, and dusty denouement. 13.8% alcohol, 95 points

CHILDS VINEYARD CABERNET 2022, $80

From a site planted in the late 1960s, along V&A Lane, the track that cuts the famed Coonawarra cigar in half. It’s plush, lush and fragrant, the fruit beautifully deep and refined.

Mulberries, summer pudding, cedar and coal fires, pan scrapings and plum paste. Muscular, detailed, assured. Finely knit tannins, powdery and persistent. 13.6% alcohol, 95 points

JOHN RIDDOCH, $175

Statuesque but open-knit, ample space to move through the wine. Structure without clutter. Blackberries, mulberries, dried violets, lavender. Rubbed rosemary and sage. Bay leaves too. Firm. Composed, upright. Muscle rather than flesh over an impressive framework. Very fine, persistent, highly pixellated tannins. 13.5% alcohol, 96 points