Flowstone Queen of the Earth Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

" 30-36 months in 50% new French oak. So much spicy chocolate peppermint nougat oak here, and that really is a dominant theme. Underneath that there’s high quality rich fruit of density and black fruit flavour, some dark tobacco, but again a whole heap of peppermint nougat, nutmeg and mocha oak, with rich sooty grainy (oak laced too) tannin and a finish of excellent length. But my word, the oak treatment seems so overt, not least given the quality of the fruit. which I don’t think needs all that winemaking edifice. It may well age beautifully, though it will always be oaky. The score is some sort of compromise, I guess, between quality in glass and stylistic preference. 89pts."
Gary Walsh, The Wine Front