Limited Release – Total Production 46 dozen.
Colour: Deep ruby red.
Aroma: Lifted red currants and stewed strawberries, with beautiful cedar and cigar box notes. Touches of chocolate and black olives.
Palate: Rich and brooding with classic Cabernet flavours of black currants and black jubes. Complex aged notes of leather and tobacco are just starting to come through with lovely soft but present tannins giving length and depth. A wine of provenance that will continue to develop further with age.
Awards and Reviews: “It’s nice to be able to hold a wine like this back and release it when it’s just starting to show its best form, and this one is. The season in 2019 crept up on people, and before they realised it, it emerged as one of the better years. This very small production wine follows the normal pattern of open ferment, hand plunging and basket pressing, but it then went into 18 months of new French oak. That could normally be a lot of oak, but this weight of fruit, concentration and power has easily handled it, and the result is a wine of impeccable balance and poise. It has loads of deep, dark fruit characters with a slightly leathery, blackcurrant leafy tobacco character. It really is an excellent wine with good weight as well as structure. Cellar for 20 years.” 97 Points, Ray Jordan
2019 Vintage Rating 8/10: The 2019 vintage started about 2 weeks later than the previous few years and had been cool, very different to the rest of the country. Yields have been lower. Lovely white wines have had time to develop delicate flavours while retaining natural acidity. A bit of mid-vintage rain refreshed the reds, then the fruit hung out there allowing for a long, slow ripening period. There was no Marri flowers so netting of all varieties was necessary.
Vinification: Harvested in the cool early hours, the Cabernet was delivered directly to open fermenters, ensuring pristine fruit with minimal material other than grapes. After a brief cold soak, fermentation began with a Bordeaux yeast strain. Gentle rack-and-returns early on helped extract fine tannins and vibrant colour, followed by careful hand plunging as the ferment progressed. The wine remained on skins for 33 days, allowing time for structure and complexity to build naturally. Basket-pressed to tank for malolactic fermentation, it was then transferred to 90% new and 10% seasoned French oak for 18 months of maturation. This significant oak influence was effortlessly balanced by the vintage’s concentration and power, resulting in a wine of poise, depth and longevity. No fining or tannin additions were used.
Alcohol: 14.4%
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