Fraser Gallop Estate 2007 Cabernet Merlot

This year marks the first release of the Fraser Gallop Estate Cabernet Merlot which is a style that has become popular worldwide. The blending of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot has been historically done for hundreds of years in Bordeaux where the structural tannins of Cabernet are tamed by the inherent mid-palate richness and softness of Merlot grape.

Winemaker's Notes

The hand picked fruit was destemmed with minimal crushing to keep berries whole and chilled to 8°C for cold soaking to closed fermenters (designed with a one-to-one ratio of height and length, great for colour and flavour extraction) and pumped over with a turbopiguer. This is the first vintage of Fraser Gallop Estate red wines to be made with this new turbopigeur technology from France.The wine was pumped over daily using a turbopiguer ( which is able to pump whole intact grapes without grinding pulp and skins at up to 70,000 l/hour allowing better homogenisation and extraction of the must) equivalent to two tank volumes initially backing off to twice a day pump overs to equivalent half a tank volume below 2 ºBe. The wine was tasted daily to monitor the tannin extraction and was on skins for 10 days before pressing off-skins in an airbag tank press. This was the point that the best combination of fruit and tannin balance was achieved. 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 wine was blended, then various fining trials done to assess the final balance after which it was decided that the wines did not require any finings and put to bottle after a polish filtration in July 2008.

Colour

An intense deep inky red colour in the glass prepares you for what is to come from a stunning 2007 vintage in Margaret River.

Nose

The nose is instantly appealing with ripe mulberry, mocha and dark chocolate jumping out of the glass.

Palate

The palate has fresh cranberry, red currants, and persimmon like tannins wrapped around a core of cedary and vanilla oak. The palate is refreshingly zingy with a crisp acidity that balances the ripe berry fruit flavours finishing off with chewy dry tannins.

Cellaring

Although the wine is eminently drinkable now the structure stands it in good stead for extended cellaring if you can resist its charms now. It will continue to improve for 12 years at least.