Blend: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Analysis:
Alcohol: 14.5 % | PH: 3.84 | Titratable acidity: 5.84 g/L
Bottling Date: July 2021
Cellaring: 5+ years
Tasting Notes:
A youthful Cabernet Sauvignon built for aging. The nose shows intense and complex notes of blackcurrant, redcurrant, black cherry, mint, burlap, paprika, fennel seed, black licorice and graphite with some lavender and violet, leather and nicely integrated oak. The palate is firmly structured with a full body, crisp acidity and powerful ripe tannins all nicely integrated. Blackberry, blueberry, black plum and mulberry fruit accompanies thyme, dried sage, spicy paprika notes and charred meat with shortbread and baking spice on the long finish. Pair with pancetta wrapped pork tenderloin, ground lamb baked with eggplant and tamarind or vegetarian chorizo sausages.
– Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
Spring arrived early in 2019, allowing for early and even bud break, flowering and fruit set. This was followed by a warm, yet more moderate summer. The summer heat was enough to produce nicely concentrated levels of ripeness in the grapes and the cool autumn provided conditions for acidity to be retained in the fruit as well, providing the wine with a lively freshness to balance the ripe fruit notes.
The grapes were harvested by hand from our Eva’s Vineyard in Osoyoos and our Burrowing Owl Vineyard in Oliver at the very end of the 2019 growing season. They were sorted by hand, then destemmed and gently crushed before being fed by gravity flow into stainless tanks for skin maceration and alcoholic fermentation to occur with temperatures ranging from 10 to 32°C. Both free-run and pressed wines were then moved into separate barrels for malolactic fermentation followed by ageing for 18 months. The selection of barrels helped round out the tannins, and contributed complex savoury, toasted and spicy notes. After the blending of the barrels, the wine was bottled unfiltered and left to mature in bottle until its release.
Ageing: 82.5% French, 15% Hungarian, and 2.5% American with 34% new, 30% one- and two-year-old, and 36% neutral oak
