Palate
It has wonderful spicy red and black fruit flavours, with a medium to full bodied palate, and puts an interesting twist on Cabernet Sauvignon.
Growing Conditions
Vineyard: The Cabernet Sauvignon is from a single vineyard in Willyabrup, planted in the late 90's. It is on lateritic gravelly loam, with a gentle westerly aspect. The Touriga is from a small patch of vines in Yallingup, planted in the late 70's. It is a gnarly old patch of vines, high on the gravelly ridge overlooking Geographe Bay.
The 2013 season: A dry, warm spring and summer followed by a harvest period of continued warmth. No real heat extremes, just a long mild summer and autumn. The season breaking rains came in late April, well after the grapes were harvested. 2013 is an absolute classic for red and white wines in Margaret River.
The red wines are benchmark Margaret River - intense, focussed, dense and profound. These wines have an inherent sense of poise and balance at an early age, and will live for a very long time.
Winemaking
The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were hand harvested on the 20th March; the Touriga on 3rd April . Both varieties were made separately, but in similar manners. Fermentation was in a few open 1 tonne fermenters, with thrice daily plunging. There was no temperature control.
Following fermentation, the Cabernet Sauvignon wine remained on skins for two weeks, the Touriga 10 days. Mlf occurred during this period. The wine was subsequently pressed. Pressings wine was not separated. The wine was allowed to settle for 2 weeks, and then transferred to French oak barriques, 20% new. It remained in these barrels for 24 months.
Following barrel maturation, the barrels were blended, fined with free range egg whites, and prepared for bottling. After bottling, the wine was then allowed to relax in bottle for a further 24 months prior to being made available for sale. This wine was released in August, 2017.
