Palate
The bouquet is dense in dark berry fruits with hints of sweet, talcy and spicey French oak. Rich in classic Cabernet notes of sweet blackberry and blackcurrant, savoury dried herbs and softening cocoa and mocha, the palate’s opulence is shaped by a supple and fine tannin structure. This wine has a powerful presence, a sweet core and lasting flavours that with reveal and reward with time.
Growing Conditions
The Great Southern began the growing season with just adequate soil moisture and catchment fill. Cool and blustery spring weather in November impacted flowering, set and early spring growth. Summer was punctuated by hot spells, which magnified the effects of little spring or summer rain. The south facing vineyard sites did receive some cooling breezes off the southern ocean and the more continental sub region of Frankland at least experienced cooler nights. These hot, dry conditions accelerated ripeness with sugar accumulation well in advance of flavour in late March. A sporadic deluge of between 25 to 60 mm in early April, as autumn temperatures cooled, did slow the red maturities. The below average yields have produced wines full of concentrated fruit, ample acidity and fine tannins.
Winemaking
All grapes selected for Abercrombie are handpicked, destemmed and sorted before fermentation in a mix of small static fermenters and open stainless steel vats. The grapes are hand-plunged and pumped over as required to balance the extraction of colour, tannin and flavour. Each fermenter is basket-pressed to French oak barriques for 18 months of maturation to achieve thorough integration of oak and grape tannins. The wine is minimally fined then filtered prior to bottling.
Aging
After a minimum of 6 months settling in bottle, the wine is released. The 2013 is an outstanding
vintage of Abercrombie that will take time to reach maturity then cellar well for more than a
decade. This wine will drink at its best from 2018.
Appearance
A dark ruby red with purple hues .
