Joshua Cooper Wines Dash Farm Cabernet Sauvignon / 2025 / 750mL

The Joshua Cooper Dash Farm Cabernet Sauvignon 2025 is a cool-climate Cabernet from the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, built on fine-boned red fruit and leaf rather than sheer power. Expect something closer to medium weight, with plenty of savoury detail around the fruit.

Aromatically it leans red — cranberry, redcurrant and dark cherry — with the herbal lift Cabernet gives in cooler country, all crushed bay leaf, dried sage and a touch of violet. There is a graphite edge underneath that keeps the fruit from reading as sweet.

The palate is slender and upright, carrying firm but finely grained tannin that runs the length of the wine rather than clamping down at the end. Acidity is bright and natural-feeling, texture is chalky, and the finish turns gently earthy, with that mix of blackcurrant skin and dried herb lingering longest.

Roast lamb with rosemary is the obvious call, though it does just as well with grilled beef, a mushroom and thyme pie, or hard sheep's milk cheese. Serve it a touch cool — around 16 degrees — and the aromatics sharpen noticeably.

Drinking well from now through to around 2035, with the tannin and acid structure suggesting the middle years will be the most rewarding. A decant of thirty minutes helps if you are opening it young.