Deep dense crimson red in colour with a youthful purple and brick red hues, the wine has lifted, cassis and herbaceous berry like fruit aromas currently dominating the bouquet with cigar box vanilla wood overtones. The palate is well structured and full bodied, featuring rich, ripe and persistent classic Cabernet flavours supported by a backbone of integrated, finely grained soft tannins and French oak. The ripe fruit flavours are enhanced and sweetened by the oak and finishes with a balanced crisp acidity. Together these characteristics produce a wine of great complexity that fill the mouth over the length of the whole palate. The overall richness weight and structure of the wine will see it greatly improve with further careful cellaring over the next 10 years. It is an elegant, sophisticated wine that will age gracefully. The wine is an excellent accompaniment for red meat dishes especially BBQ and heavy pasta dishes and curries.

Oak Maturation: 9 months in new and one year old French oak barriques. Monthly batonnage on lees. Vintage: The 2016 vintage cold and wet in the early part of the season. The temperature then spiked in early October continuing to a mixture of warm days wet days and cool dry nights in the latter part of the season. Most rainfall was in the pre Spring growing period with drip irrigation required towards the end of the growing period around April. Winemakers Comments: Only free run juice used in this wine, inoculated with Burgundian yeast strains. Barrel & malolactic fermentation at 20 degrees celcius. Lees stirring over a nine month storage period.Tasting Note: The colour is a vibrant straw with tinges of pale green. The nose shows peach and melon characters with subtle spicy vanilla wood characters. Undertones of cashew, butterscotch and vegemite umami from extended lees contact and careful oak selection. The pallet is showing rich peach and pear fruit with spicy undertones. Extended lees contact in French Oak barriques adds dimension and length to the wine providing great texture, intense flavour through the length of the pallet. The wines finished dry with crisp acidity and a gratifying creamy finish. The extra bottle age has enhanced the pallet texture and mouth feel.Food: Raw and lightly cooked shellfish like crab and prawns, steamed or grilled fish, fish pâtés, fish, chicken or vegetable terrines and pasta or risotto with spring vegetables. Also goes well with creamy vegetable soups.