A full- bodied wine this week, not for the feint-hearted, it's a whopping 14% alcohol and not very tannic . It has a lovely deep garnet-red colour with a bouquet of red currants with an oaky background. This follows through to the taste which is full of fruit to the extent that the high alcohol is masked .

It has been given a D for full-bodiedness (on the A to E scale). This is a well balanced wine with a long tasty finish. It is a wine to drink on its own or with roast beef or lamb. The recommendation is that it is consumed within a year of purchase. It's such a tasty wine I'd drink it straight away.

The provenance is the Forest Hill vineyard at Denmark a town in the s. w. corner of Western Australia about as far south as it is possible to go in the state. The climate here by the sea at 35 degrees is a lot more comfortable for grapes than the very hot environment 200 miles north in the Perth area.

A lot of claret is made using these same grapes but the Australians have taken advantage of the benefit that 10 latitude nearer the equator can give and exploited the best attributes of both varieties.

Cabernet sauvignon is a tough grape owing to the fact that its pips constitute one twelfth of the volume and therefore make the wine a lot more tannic and this is where the softness of merlot comes in. There is a feeling in the wine trade that this region is set to become one of the top regions of the 21st century. The blend here has been expertly done giving a very good wine sold at Sainsbury for only £5.79 that's £1.20 off the normal price a real bargain.