Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The dark, intense 2018 St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon is barrel fermented in new oak. This is less about floral and high notes than the Estate Cabernet, instead focusing on the deep bass notes of cassis and coffee, with hints of dark chocolate and black olives. Full-bodied and intense, it's plush and velvety, with a long finish.
Range: 93-95 -
Wine Enthusiast
Rhubarb, currant and cassis aromas are threaded with peppery spices, black olives, a hint of dark chocolate, and as it warms, dried flowers. The palate takes its time opening but when it does, shows elegance and freshness amidst tightly wound, spicy tannins and lifted fruit. Drink until 2037.
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.
The Clare Valley is actually a series of narrow north to south valleys, each with a different soil type and slightly different weather patterns along their stretch. In the southern heartland between Watervale and Auburn, there is mainly a crumbled, red clay loam soil called terra rossa and cool breezes come in from Gulf St. Vincent. A few miles north, in Polish Hill, is soft, red loam over clay; westerlies blowing in from the Spencer Gulf influece this area's climate.
The differences in soil, elevation, degree of slope and weather enable the region to produce some of Australia’s finest, aromatic, spicy and lime-pithy Rieslings, as well as excellent Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec with ripe plummy fruit, good acid and big structure.
Clare Valley is an isolated farming country with a continental climate known for its warm and sunny days, followed by cool nights—perfect for wine grapes’ development of sugar and phenolic ripeness in conjunction with notable acidity levels.