2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage 2005 has been described as “outstanding” across the board for Margaret River and particularly for the red varieties. It was characterised by a very dry and cool growing season which produced fruit with very good natural acidities, good colour and flavour.

The unirrigated vines at Victory Point coped well and thanks to the intensive vineyard management the fruit arrived at the winery in excellent condition. The cabernet varieties were hand picked in batches from 12.5 to 13.0 Baume, from 15th to 30th March, arriving at the winery just as the first rains began to fall.

Winemaking Notes

On delivery to the winery the fruit was immediately de-stemmed and crushed into static fermenters. The cap was pumped over resulting in a wine of excellent colour intensity, varietal fruit flavours and soft tannins. The wine was pressed off skins and transferred to barriques where malolactic fermentation was completed.

Maturation occurred for 18 months in a mix of new (33%) and one – two year old French oak barriques. Each batch was racked every 3 months and barrel topped between rackings.

Throughout processing and maturation parcels were kept separate to provide blending options. Once the blend was finalised, fining was carried out with frozen egg whites and the wine had a single filtration pass to provide bottle ready clarity. The wine was bottled with screw cap closures on 28/02/2007.

The final blend for the 2005 vintage was determined unanimously by our tasting panel to be: Cabernet Sauvignon 80%, Cabernet Franc 10%, Malbec 5%, Petit Verdot 5%.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Bright condition, medium to deep brick red colour.

Nose: Lifted fruit aromas of red currant, cherry, rich Christmas cake characters, complex notes of leather, earth and wax and soft, charry oak.

Palate: Mouth filling red and dark fruit flavours of mulberry and red currant, with good weight and length, full body, complemented by fine, well integrated tannins on both the mid and back palate. Well integrated oak on the finish.

Cellaring: A really fine example of the outstanding 2005 vintage in Margaret River and with its concentration of fruit and outstanding balance, the wine is destined for a long life. While it can be enjoyed young, the wine will require at least a further 5 years cellaring to develop Cabernet’s complex bottle bouquet and should continue to develop well for at least another 5 years beyond that. (Nov 2007).