Sandalford Margaret River Cabernet Merlot 2022 (Australia)

Description

Oak, Rhubarb, Spice

Deep ruby red with youthful garnet hues. Blackcurrant and red berry fruits overlaying plum skin, potpourri, wild mint and bay leaf nuances. Oak spice, chocolate box and cedar notes derived from French oak maturation adding to the appeal. Medium to full bodied and elegant in structure, the generous sweet red fruits, plum skin, and oak nuances are balanced with subtle savoury spice. The firm, fine grained tannin structure is well balanced providing length to the finish. This classic Bordeaux blend will cellar for up to 10 years adding complexity with bottle age.

85% Cabernet Sauvignon and 15% Merlot.

The 2022 vintage could be best described as challenging. A reflection of the wetter
than average summer impacting picking decisions. Our Wilyabrup vineyard however
fared well and produced fresh, bright, flavoursome fruit to make wines from. The
Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes were machine harvested separately in the cool
of the night and were phonologically ripe at the time of picking. The resulting wines
are fresh, balanced and display wonderful varietal fruit characteristics.

The two varieties were harvested separately during the cool of night in mid-April and
destemmed to static fermenters. A select yeast isolate was used in the primary
fermentation and lasted for 10 days with pump overs used twice daily during this
period to ensure optimum extraction of colour, flavour and tannins. The wine was then
drained and pressed to tank for malolactic fermentation before maturation in a
combination of tank and seasoned French oak barrels before blending, fining and
bottling.