Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Tasting Notes
On the nose the Cabernet shows red fruits, fruits of the forest and fresh, well-integrated oak with a hint of floral and cedar notes. There is also a hint of star anise with a touch of musk too. The wine has a fresh, even and balanced palate with lovely mouth-coating fine tannins.
Vintage
An ideal lead up to vintage 2005 was had at Edgehill Vineyard: good winter rains with cool temperatures preceded a perfectly timed spring rain prior to flowering. Budburst occurred at its usual time (mid – late August), followed by a slightly earlier flowering than normally experienced. In the lead up to vintage there was a very even ripening period with few temperature extremes which resulted in the vines photosynthesising longer each day, bringing vintage forward by at least a couple of weeks. 2005 was a textbook vintage with excellent quality grapes resulting from what in hindsight was a very cool summer (reminiscent of 2002) with minimal temperature extremes.
Winemaking
Traditionally made in open fermenters and matured in a mixture of both old (60%) and new (40%) French and American oak. Of the new oak component, 90% was French and the balance American. The Cabernet Sauvignon has benefited from the addition of a small percentage of ‘cordon cut’ ‘Amarone’ style Cabernet which was left to dry on the vine for about two weeks after harvest. Separately fermented and matured, it was blended back just prior to bottling. This ‘Amarone’ style component adds an interesting twist to this single vineyard wine.
Awards
Top 100 – Courier Mail Top 100 Wines
‘McLaren Vale is known for Shiraz but this cabernet is vibrant, full of black fruits and chocolate notes, and is good value. From organically certified grapes, this has some herbal touches that typify cabernet and finishes with cleansing acidity.’
Reviews
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Picking Date: 11th and 18th March, 2nd April 2005
Bottling Date: 16th August 2006
pH Level: 3.54
Total Acidity: 6.71g/L
Alc/Vol: 14.5%