2020 Bundalong Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon (6 Pack)
- Description
- Winemaking
- Reviews
This single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon was picked late to maximise the flavour. Deep red with purple hue, the nose is rich with brooding dark cassis fruit plush and rounded, with some secondary aromas of bitumen and leather. A faint leafy note when swirled.
The palate is powerful and dense with black fruits and great shape with firm structured tannins. This wine will age well and reward careful cellaring.
Made by Peter Bissell, chief winemaker of Balnaves.
Block: Quarry Block
Soil profile: Terra Rossa
Oak: 24% new (balance in seasoned) French oak Hogsheads & Barriques
Age of release: 5 years
Cases produced 400 dozen
Cellaring potential: 2035
Alc Vol: 14%
The fruit for our Cabernet Sauvignon was selected from the Quarry block Cabernet planted in 1990, with only the high rocky ground harvested, then put through a berry sorter, to select only the best berries. The grapes were fermented for ten days in a ten-tonne open top stainless-steel fermenter. The wine was matured for fourteen months in fine grain French oak, from a combination of Darnajou, Domaine Fouquet and Saury, 24% new, with the balance in seasoned oak.
"Attractively fruited and varietally expressive, the wine displays dark berry, dried herb, star anise, and cedar notes on the nose. It's succulent and beautifully weighted in the mouth, delivering fine texture and polished tannins, making it sturdy and persistent. At its best: now to 2032"
- Sam Kim, Wine Orbit
One whiff and it's so Coonawarra. But a modern Coonawarra at that. For 35 bucks, this is well worth chasing down.
Blackberries, Kirsch, red earth, tobacco, black olive tapenade and an array of fine spices are pinned together by dark plums that have their footprint driven into the palate. It's a wine with medium-bodied density but that length coupled with moreish spices keeps you in the hunt and seeking more time and again. A dusting of dark chocolate is late on the scene and a subtle mintiness caps off a very tidy wine. Made by Ox Hardy, you're in good hands here."
- Steve lezsensky, Q WIne
"This is a supremely approachable Cabernet, with elegance a defining feature amid its leafy and delicately herbaceous tones, underpinned by vibrant fruit. Autumn leaves and pimiento lead the aromas, layered over baked plum and red currant, before more savoury shades of earth, sun-dried tomato, pepper spice and graphite emerge.
The palate flows with a harmonious meld of fruit and savoury characters - plum, bramble, tomato bush, subtle earth and mint - wrapped in fine, grainy tannins. These are well integrated and carry the wine to a finish of good length."
- Tom Kline, Wine Pilot