Additional information
| Weight | 1.467 kg |
|---|
2022 Clarendon Hills Sandown Cabernet Sauvignon
$90.00 / bottle
Planted in Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale during the 1930’s the Sandown Cabernet Sauvignon site is populated by a rare pre-phylloxera Chateau Reynella Cabernet Sauvignon clone that expresses the ancient Blewitt Springs terroir with opulence and majesty. Low yielding, west facing old vines produce a powerful yet refined and elegantly composed, classic Cabernet Sauvignon with notes of black currant, graphite, slate, earl grey tea, sage and bay leaf mixed with cedar shaving and baking spice with a roast meat undertone that gives the wine power and presence.
Specifications
RegionRegion
Blewitt Springs, McLaren Vale. A sprawling hillside region 10 kms North East of McLaren Vale town centre famous for its added comparative elevation and abundant hillside aspects whose rich ironstone and deep sand deposits forge individual and highly fragrant wines. The Sandown Cabernet Sauvignon is a single site wine from an old vine patch planted in the 1930’s. These are pre-phylloxera, Reynella Clone Cabernet Vines.
Conditions
After three dry and warm-to-hot vintages in a row, 2021 was a bit of a relief for local winemakers. Heavy rain in the early growing season gave healthy levels of balanced fruit, with the total crush up 28% from the lows of 2020. After a hot start to the season, the weather cooled in December, avoiding any significant heat spikes. The cooler ripening weather and elevated yields show in the elegance and generous fruit in the wines.
Winemaking
Low yielding, dry grown vines from the Blewitt Springs region in McLaren Vale were hand-picked and followed by a 100% de-stemmed, wild yeast fermentation. All pressings were returned to barrel and eventually bottled onsite without fining or filtration after 18 months in French Oak.
Maturation
18 months, within a hierarchy of 1-5 year old tightly grained French Oak. Bottled at the winery with no fining or filtration.
Grape Variety
100% Cabernet Sauvignon, single vine, old vines
Closure
DIAM
Production
3000 bottles
Winemaker
Roman Bratasiuk
From 1930s-planted Reynella clone on soils with decomposed shale, ironstone, schist and quartz. Vintage '22 produced many top wines, though they were often marked with a certain initial reserve, a tense nexus of acid and tannin, made for the longer haul. That plays out here, with compressed blackcurrant, blackberry and olive, oolong tea, graphite, soy, blackstrap, dried hardy herbs and the kind of pressed flowers found in an old book’s brittle vanillin-scented pages. It feels a little like walking an old mine, redolent of crushed rock and buttressing timber. It works well, but it needs air and patience.
95/100
2022 Sandown Cabernet
- Wine Companion, Marcus Ellis
