Fraser Gallop Estate 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon

This wine is a traditional blend of varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec), which result in a style showing concentrated fruit flavours, rich and layered with soft, spicy oak notes. The grapes originate from our single, dry grown Margaret River vineyard with its gravelley laterite soils, maritime climate and high winter rainfall with a long dry ripening period.

Winemaker's Notes

The hand picked fruit was de-stemmed to closed fermenters and pumped over immediately. The wine was pumped over twice a day. It was tasted daily to monitor the tannin extraction and was on skins for 10 days before pressing off-skins in an airbag tank press. The wine was then pumped to barrel and the malolactic fermentation induced.

The wines were racked three times during their life of 18 months in barrel with topping up of barrels every 2 weeks. The barrels were predominantly new barriques from Tonnellerie Remond in Burgundy as well as the Bordeaux cooperages of Taransaud, Seguin Moreau and Saury.

Colour

A deep red colour with crimson hues, this wine has lifted aromas of violets, dusty mulberry, chocolate and a hint of spearmint that gives away its Margaret River heritage.

Nose

The bouquet of the wine is quite fresh and appealing with subtle hints of cedar from the French Oak barriques.

Palate

The palate shows flavour-ripe mulberries. The tannins are quite powdery and chalky and show ripe seed tannin profiles. The acidity is nicely poised balancing the moderately sweet mid-palate flavours. A wine that shows elegance and restraint in the alcohol stakes reflecting the terroir and the balance of the vines growing without irrigation.

The oak is well integrated with soft and spicy notes. The wine finishes well with mulberries and chalky tannins lingering till the next mouthful.

Cellaring

A wine that will continue to improve with up to 12 years of cellaring.