2007 Tobacco Road Cabernet Sauvignon (Gundagai, Big Rivers, Heathcote) $13 - Retail

Tobacco Road is the quaffer range of the Victorian Alps Wine Company (Gapsted being their premier label). What sparked my interest was that it included some fruit from Gundagai (along with the Big Rivers and Heathcote among others).


At $13 a bottle, do not be expecting a complex, heady mix of dusty, spicy fruit (or Red’s pet Cab descriptor –gravel). On the nose there are oodles of sweet vanilla, jammy blackcurrant and even some strawberry cream lollies. The palate is soft, round and juicy, minimal tannin and acid, and average intensity. What it lacks in line and length it makes up with juicy gluggable (if non-varietal) fruit. It does not finish with any bitter or mouth-coating tannin (the curse for me of the entry-level Cabernet), nor is it sickly or cloyingly sweet (I would put out a Lost in Space ‘Warning’ on this wine to any cool climate pepper-fiend).

Given the modest price, it is what it is – an uncomplicated, full flavoured and highly quaffable wine. I want to try some Gundagai-only wine one day, and any recommendations would be more than welcome.