Sandalford Estate Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 (Australia)

Description

Blackcurrant, Chocolate, Oak

Dark garnet red in the glass. Bramble fruits, blackcurrant and mulberry with an attractive violet floral note. Bay leaf, wild mint and subtle vanillin oak completes the picture. This is classic Margaret River Caberner - vibrant, sweet, dark berry fruits and oak flavours of cinnamon, chocolate box and cedar. The tannins are silky soft, sweet and plush, and in balance with the acidity. A wine with wonderful structure and length. This wine reward careful cellaring over the next ten to twenty years if you can wait for that long.

The 2018 vintage was a return to the fantastic growing conditions that Margaret River is renowned for. The wet winter preceding the growing season provided ample soil moisture for the healthy vines to ripen over the summer months. An extended dry and warm period through to the end of picking in mid-April presented ideal conditions for the ripening of fruit. All fruit this season is of exceptional quality and showing great varietal characteristics. 2018 will be long regarded as on of the great vintages of the decade for Margaret River.

The grapes for this wine are exclusively from our 40+ year old Wilyabrup Estate Vineyard in Margaret River. After crushing and destemming the must was inoculated with a selected yeast isolate for fermenters. The traditional method of pumping over was used this time to optimise colour, flavour and tannin extraction. At the completion of fermentatio, the wine was pressed to tank and inoculated for malolactic fermentation. At the completion of MLF, the wine was racked and transferred to French oak barrels (25% new) for 13months maturation. The wine was then blended, with the inclusion of 2% Malbec, before filtration and bottling.