Winemaker Notes
-Wine Advocate
The Cabernet Sauvignon on our vineyard produces small berries with a high skin to juice ratio. The result is a wine that is intense and structured yet is rich and has the ripe flavor for which McLaren Vale is renowned. The fruit was picked late in the season when ripe and, after fermentation, matured for 18 months in American and French oak of varying ages.
The color is a deep dark vibrant crimson. The bouquet has lifted ripe berry fruit and blackcurrant with some vanillin and cedary oak characters as well as classic cassis Cabernet aromas. The palate has plenty of berry fruit, vanillin oak and fine tannins. An intense and structured wine with rich fruit and a long finish.
Professional Ratings
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.