A Pakistani pinch-hitter couldn’t chalk up a century quicker. Katnook Estate, which made its first wine in 1980, celebrated its centenary in December, 1996, with the release of a wonderful dry red called ‘Odyssey’. Why they would name this wine after a Honda car is anyone’s guess, but it’s a terrific drink and I love the cheekiness of the ‘centenary’. Katnook Estate’s winery is built in and around John Riddoch’s historic woolshed on his ‘Katnook’ pastoral property. In 1896 William Salter made Coonawarra’s second vintage in the same woolshed, while the main Coonawarra cellars, today owned by Wynns, were being constructed. Nevertheless, the Odyssey is a sumptuous, concentrated cabernet sauvignon from the stellar 1991 vintage whose thirty months of new oak maturation have imbued it with silky fine tannins and superb balance. I rate it 18.7 and suggest it be cellared until 2003-2011. If anyone tells you it’s expensive at $55, ask them what else of this age and quality you can buy for the same price.
