Description
The vineyard
A tiny parcel of Cabernet Sauvignon planted in the late 1980’s to the south of the Bobar Chardonnay vines. It faces east, tucked into the base of the Christmas Hills, protected and hidden. The wines from the parcel have an ease, balance and restraint, the mature vines delivering depth and intensity without weight or undue effort. This property is protected in perpetuity by a wildlife covenant due to its rare remnant natural ecosystems.
The 2021/22 season was the third successive cool season, and the wines of 2022 are outstanding. Adequate rain and generally cool conditions made for a slow and steady vine development, slow ripening with fantastic natural acidity and amazing flavour development. The wines have purity, balance and intensity with profound ageing capacity.
Winemaking
The freshly harvested and uncrushed bunches of Cabernet Sauvignon were placed directly into small open fermenters for 3 weeks maceration. For the period of maceration there was no further crushing of the fermenting wine as we sought to extract and retain the most delicate and tender components for this cuvee. Fermentation was completed in old oak casks following pressing, and bottled in late spring 2022. As with all our zero-added SO2 wines there is a period of bottle maturation prior to release.
Alcohol – 11%
Titratable acidity – 5.2g/L
pH – 3.41
Total sulphur dioxide – 4mg/L (all naturally occurring)
Residual sugar – 0.02g/L
Volatile acidity – 0.48g/L
