How to pick the best cabernet sauvignon

Nine in a line….which should you choose?

Cabernet Sauvignon is the world’s favorite red grape. It plays second fiddle to shiraz in Australia but cabernet’s fans love its softer, medium-bodied flavours.
So when a large wine producer sends out an offer to buy any or all of nine cabernets offering steep “discounts” of up to 50% with only 24 hours to choose, we wondered which was the best of the bunch.

Firstly, we ignored the advertised discounts and so-called ratings from a single-source critic. Then we got to work checking the wines’ ratings from our database of 60,000 independent Australian wine show ratings. After applying some modest statistical analysis, we then compared the ratings against the advertised prices.

Here’s what we found:

• The BEST was the Lindeman’s St George Cabernet Sauvignon 2012. It is a genuine cracker with four gold medals. However, it’s also the dearest at $35 a bottle.
• The MOST OVERPRICED was the St Huberts Yarra Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2013. It’s the second dearest at $25 but only had a median score of 87 – a modest bronze.
• The BEST VALUE, in our humble opinion, is the ubiquitous Ingoldby McLaren Vale Cabernet Sauvignon 2013. Although it only scores the same as the St Huberts, it can be taken home for just $11.

So what would we buy? Well, probably none of them.

Vinloco says the best buy for $11 is the Rosemount Estate Diamond Label Cab sauv 2013 with a rating of 92. That’s just one point behind what one should expect to get if you were to pay $35 a bottle – or the price of the St George.

Still, if you really want to impress, the St George is genuinely better with a median rating of 95 points and we think constitutes great value for $35.

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