2013 Disciples McLaren Flat Cabernet Sauvignon

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New French oak hogshead for 18 months sur lie. Bottles Produced: 384

Grab
An ode to ‘96 Goundrey Cabernet Sauvignon. Cheers Tony!

Spiel
Each vintage, when a barrel of outstanding quality reveals itself, we reward our Disciples with an offering. Exclusive to our followers, these rare tributes represent our ultimate expressions of ‘kick arse booze’. Enjoy!

Colour
Black

Bouquet
Cassis and plum fruit flavours with hint of mint chocolate

Palate
Dense black fruits with a rich oak driven mid palate, and a firm tannic dark chocolate finish

Cellaring
Drink up, but also a 15+ year proposition

Vintage
Following a ‘champagne’ vintage like 2012, it was always going to be a hangover year. Low winter and spring rainfall led to variable vine growth. Soil moisture monitoring and irrigation proved to be vital in one of the driest seasons on record. The dry conditions led to a poor fruit set, and a heat spell in early February brought on vintage quickly. There was no time for hangovers now, as the excitement of harvest kicked in. With most of the action over by the end of March, it was clear to see that the dry season and low yields had produced some exuberant wines reminiscent of 2008. 2013 was a fun and frantic vintage producing equally exciting wines!

Vineyard
Tony’s vineyard is to the east of McLaren Flat in the east of McLaren Vale – 145m above sea level on clay over sandstone.

Vinification
The fruit was crushed/destemmed and fermented at temperatures ranging from 20- 25°C inside two new French oak hogsheads for 48 days on skins. At the end of fermentation, it was drained/pressed, and transferred back to one new French oak hogshead to undergo MLF. Post MLF, sulphur dioxide was added, and the wine matured sur lie for 18 months. This wine was bottled unfiltered in October 2014.