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97
/ 1
James Halliday's Wine Companion -
95
/ 100
Gary Walsh
Red
Classification
Cabernet Blend
Variety
2021
Vintage
750ml (Bottle)
Bottle Size
Australia
Country
South Australia, McLaren Vale
Region
14.0%
Alcohol %
5-10 Years
Cellaring
Scores
97 / 1"75/25% cabernet sauvignon/touriga nacional. There’s something agreeably old school about this, but it’s also clearly the product of a refined approach, in both vineyard and winery. When I say old school, I’m going back much further than what we generally regard as such. It feels bygone, in a very good way. Oak performs a function, but it doesn’t headline, fruit is ripe but not pushed. Plush blue and red florals, liqueur cherry, dark chocolate, toasted malt, licorice, caraway, so much iodine and kelp, like wintery sea-lashed rocks, a fresh blueberry levity, lavender and ground fresh rosemary, a cabernet leafiness levelling. Complex, layered and abundant, but savoury with it. What a lovely bottle this is. 97 points. Marcus Ellis, Wine Companion Aug 2024"
- James Halliday's Wine Companion
95 / 100
"The Touriga rides high here giving the wine a Port-like violet perfume, raspberry, blackcurrant, a jubey pop of fruit, five spice and oyster shell and new car smell (leather seats, a given). It’s fleshy and plump, a bouncy amount of ripe dark fruit, quite some mouth-perfume, plush velour tannin, juicy and jellied to close, and long with it. Such fun. So interesting and distinctive. I love it."
- Gary Walsh
Tasting Notes
Upon purchasing the vineyard in 2012 I saw it as an ideal place to create blends that included grape varieties I believe will see McLaren Vale into the future, and further, complement the traditional varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. I grafted two contoured and terraced blocks on deep red soil closest to the scrub at the top of the south-facing slope to Touriga Nacional with the intention of blending with Tempranillo, Graciano and Mataro. Blending with Cabernet Sauvignon was never planned, but as fate would have it, there is a magic
between the two varieties that can’t be ignored.
Block 1 Cabernet Sauvignon hand harvested on the 25th of March and gently crushed to a stainless-steel fermenter with 13 days on skins before pressing and settling in tank for 35 days. Racked to old French oak puncheons for malolactic fermentation and maturation before blending. Block 8 and 11 Touriga Nacional hand harvested on the 8th of April and gently crushed to an old French oak fermenter for 13 days before pressing and settling for 21 days. Transferred to an old 2800L French oak vat for malolactic fermentation. Blended on the 13th of October, 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Touriga Nacional, and sent to French oak puncheons, 3rd to 5th use, for 12 months. Bottled unfined and unfiltered on the 28th of October 2022.
Flavour Profile: Crème de cassis is a classic aroma for Cabernet Sauvignon and here it is in abundance. Unsmoked cigars in a cedar box sitting in brambles surrounded by a moat of master stock - if such a
thing is possible. The Touriga Nacional florals support Cabernet’s aromatics and amplify them.
Structure & Texture: Raspberry leaf, pink jelly crystals, split red wood, star anise and black currants are
matched by an oyster shell texture that builds and builds again before a glossy crescendo, and a wall of
fruit that slowly disassembles and forces you to swallow. A joyous riot that will bamboozle and polarise.
Cabernet Sauvignon needs Touriga Nacional! - Stephen Pannell
Tasting Profile
- Light
- Full
- Low Tannin
- Tannic
- Sweet
- Dry
- Low Acidity
- High Acidity