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 Mount Barker and Porongurup regions experienced warm to hot conditions throughout the vintage. Hot spells throughout March magnified the effect of little spring or summer rain. With soil moisture very low, the cooler south facing vineyard sites did receive some reprieve off the southern ocean. These warmer than average conditions did accelerate ripeness and allowed red varieties to mature earlier The vintage was without significant heat spikes or summer rains. Diurnal temperature variations were below average which meant the nights remained warm. The maritime cooling influences and retained soil moisture allowed the vines to maintain good condition until harvest. While the characteristic afternoon southerlies appeared less grating, the lack of humidity and warm conditions keep disease pressure low and vine function high.The growing season in the south west of Western Australia was favourable for the production of great wine. After a winter of sufficient rain, the spring to autumn period was warm to hot, dry and characterised by less than average summer rain or humidity.
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.
Appearance
A dark ruby red with purple hues .
