AUSTRALIA. Lagardère Travel Retail Pacific’s Category Management team last week hosted the latest of a series of weekly tasting sessions at its Sydney office in partnership with its liquor vendors – this time with the acclaimed South Australian winemaker Taylors Wines.
The tasting took the shape of a Cabernet Sauvignon Masterclass, which included the winemaker’s award-winning The Visionary 2014 (named the World’s Best Cabernet at the Concours International des Cabernets in 2018).
“It was an absolute delight to be able to share my family’s winemaking stories and host a face-to-face tasting – possibly the one and only of this year!” said Justin Taylor, third-generation family member, Company Director & Export Manager of Taylors Wines.
“I consider it a privilege to be able to step away from behind a screen and meet with the Lagardère Travel Retail support office staff, who work tirelessly behind the scenes to keep the travel industry ticking. Despite the challenges of 2020, Taylors and Wakefield Wines remain steadfast in our commitment to supporting the duty free channel across the world.”
Lagardère Travel Retail Pacific Senior Category Manager Liquor and Wine Steven Stothard commented, “Despite duty free not being open for trade, we are remaining active and geared up for brand education and nurturing our relationships. We are a close industry and rely on each other to get through tough time and we feel very lucky at Lagardère Travel Retail to have partners like Taylors come onboard to share their expertise with our teams.”
Taylors Wines General Manager – Export Neil Hadley added, “Tough as COVID has been, it has given us all a great opportunity to reflect and really think about who our partners are and where we want to see our wines around the world. And as the world opens back up, there’s no greater ‘hello’ than to have our great selection of Cabernet Sauvignon wines available at Lagardère stores, ready to be picked up and taken around the world and deliver a truly delicious taste of authentic Australian wine quality for wine lovers everywhere.”
[Irish company Duty Free Global represents Taylors Wines in global travel retail. Here, Founder Barry Geoghegan, speaking from his native Ireland, welcomes the Lagardère Travel Retail Pacific team to a tasting of The Visionary 2014]
TAYLORS THE VISIONARY CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2014
Region: Clare Valley
Winemaker’s notes:
Colour: A dark garnet red with a vibrant vermilion hue.
Nose: Hints of wintergreen, dark cherry, black currants, dark plum, cassis, blueberries, mocha, cedar, cigar box and subtle choc mint.
Palate: The wine is rich, generous and multi-layered with understated elegance. Classic blackcurrant, dark cherry and varietal mint characters intertwine perfectly with the hallmark long, fine tannins on the palate. The finish is perfectly poised and boldly declares the stature of the wine, full of the potential for greatness.
Martin Moodie’s comments from a tasting of The Visionary in August: There are good days and bad days in business – especially during a global pandemic. And then there are bloody marvellous ones when you get to taste a wine as great – and I don’t use the term lightly – as The Visionary as part of your daily job.
There is just so very, very much happening inside this bottle. It’s big and beautiful in its ripe blackcurrant and dark cherry character but while the fruit forward character whirls and dances in the glass, the fine tannins give it a complexity that finishes as long as the Clare Valley. With every sip you discover just a little more.
The wine is crafted from a painstaking barrel assessment (12 months in a selection of two and three year-old barrels) to identify ‘exceptional’ parcels. These were then returned to barrel for a further eight months maturation prior to bottling in April 2017. You can cellar this for up to 20 years from vintage, but you might not be able to resist the temptation for anywhere near that long.
