Nose
Complex nose consisting of fruit aromas of cherry, blackberry, mulberry and rhubarb combined with tar and earth. Soft oak notes in the background, combined with leathery, earthy notes.
Palate
The impact of the Cabernet Franc is interesting here. The dominant feature is the generous Merlot blackberry-like fruit but sitting beside it a bright cherry-like lift. The tannins have Merlot’s typical mid-palate firmness but the chalky concentration of the Cabernet Franc completes the wine and adds to the length.
Growing Conditions
There is a strong theme running through the 2011 vintage – consistent warmth. Our January temperatures were typical, if not slightly on the higher side, with an average of 20.97oC but things really got going in February. The mean monthly temp was 23.76oC, making it the warmest February since our weather station was installed in 1998. To put that into perspective, the average temperature for that month is 21.21oC. Given a variation of 0.5o will produce a perceivable effect on fruit aromas, this difference of 2.55o was significant. Examining the temperature record further, we see that the vines received 49 hours above 33oC during February. Cabernet Sauvignon would only need that much warmth across the entire growing season to display ripe fruit characters, so to have received that much in one month is best described as an abundance of warmth. Vines are fairly hardy plants and hot weather, per se, is not a problem, as long as they’re not subjected to extreme temperatures and this is where 2011 really scores. Despite a warmer than average February, our hottest day was 39.7oC and apart from that, the maxima exceeded 33oC on 10 days. March was also warm, with an average temperature of 21.36oC, 1.54o above the average. However, the maximuma were more typical of Autumn and we only received 7 hours above 33oC. To summarise the impact of all this is relatively simple. We experienced consistent ripening through the season and so sugar accumulation by the vines was steady and was always going to comfortably achieve “normal” levels. Furthermore, the tendency toward higher temperatures in February, without excess extreme heat, has promoted typically ripe fruit characters and tannins giving all the wines generous mouth feel, not unlike the 2007’s but with more finesse. As an aside, we don’t have the data for 2007 because the temperature probe wasn’t operating properly. What we assume from the harvest dates and taste of the wines is that 2011 was a little cooler. Mother Nature didn’t give us too many surprises, although things didn’t go entirely our way. Cabernet Franc gave a yield of 6.27 tonnes per hectare, down by 30% and Merlot cropped at 7.56 tonnes per hectare, down 13%. On the other hand, Cabernet Sauvignon, at 7.39 tonnes per hectare, was down only 4%. A quick look at our rainfall record tells us why. Cabernet Franc started flowering on 1st November and was virtually right in the middle of the process when, on 8th, 9th and 10th November, we had a good dump of rain – 32 millimetres fell and temperatures dropped down to 6oC overnight. No surprise then that its bunch weights fell by 5%. The fact that the yield loss was greater than this would suggest bunch numbers and actual berry weights being lower than average but we don’t know for sure. Readers may be amused to learn that not even Keith is a big enough nerd to separate berries from the bunch and count and weigh them. The other two varieties show just what a difference a day (or two) makes. Merlot started flowering a few days later on 4th November, so it wasn’t quite as advanced when the rain came, resulting in a much smaller yield loss. Cabernet Sauvignon started after the event was behind us and it was virtually unaffected. Despite the rain interruption we kept our spray program on track and disease was not a problem and neither were the birds. With all the warm weather and low to average yields, the vineyard sailed quickly on to an early harvest. Merlot came off first on 3rd March, 2 weeks ahead of average, followed by Cabernet Franc on 10th March, 6 days early and then Cabernet Sauvignon was picked on 16th March, also 2 weeks early. The Merlot was picked at its average ripeness of 13.1o Baume, Cabernet Franc at 13.2o Baume, slightly less ripe than the 13.4o average and Cabernet Sauvignon came off right on the average at 13.6o.
