Fraser Gallop Estate 2009 Parterre Cabernet Sauvignon

SOLD OUT AT THE WINERY BUT STILL AVAILABLE IN RESTAURANTS AND BOTTLE SHOPS AROUND AUSTRALIA

2010 Margaret River Wine Show - Winner of two trophies - Best Single Vineyard Estate Red and Best Red of the Show.
A beautiful combination of the last two releases. The 2007 being a forward, fruit driven style and the 2008 restrained and elegant.

Winemaker's Notes

Vintage 2009
The 2009 vintage was another great one for Margaret River. A wet spring was challenging for disease control however it gave good soil moisture for the vines to draw on throughout the growing season. A cool start to summer allowed for a long, slow ripening process giving great flavour development across all varieties. The weather warmed up towards the end of December but still remained moderate with temperatures rarely exceeding 32°C. This allowed vines to steadily ripen the fruit under optimum conditions, resulting in excellent fruit flavours with good acid levels in the whites and ripe tannins in the reds.

Viticultural Notes
The Cabernet Sauvignon planted at Fraser Gallop Estate is the highly regarded “Houghton” clone. Since they were planted the vines have been dry-grown, this results in powerful, concentrated berries with a higher skin to juice ratio. Rigorous cane pruning to reduce crop levels, by our vineyard team of Paul Pavlinovich and Jeff Yates, ensures the consistency of quality from year to year. Throughout the growing season the vines are hedged to give longer sunlight exposure to the vine and the fruit, and to increase air movement which reduces the risk of disease. The vines are also leaf plucked in the fruiting zone to give high levels of fruit exposure resulting in ripe tannins and fruit flavours.

Winemaking Notes
The hand-picked fruit was destemmed before being passed through our must chiller reducing the temperature to 8 ºC for cold soaking. From the must chiller the fruit went into closed-top multi-fermenters. Three days later it was inoculated with a yeast strain selected for its ability to allow full expression of varietal fruit with good palate structure. This yeast also has low ethanol yield and high glycerol production contributing to a fine palate structure and natural mid palate sweetness without any residual sugar. Throughout fermentation the wines were pumped over daily.
From this point a number of techniques were employed to build complexity into the wine. One batch was pressed off skins early to complete fermentation in oak, another batch was pressed off just after fermentation, another batch was pressed off just after fermentation and underwent macro-oxidation for 5 days and another batch was left on skins for 35 days post fermentation. Each of the wines made from these different techniques contribute something unique to the wine whether it be the great fruit sweetness and integrated oak flavours from the barrel fermented portion, depth of colour from macro-oxidation or savoury flavours and complex full-bodied tannins from long skin contact. Small amounts of other varieties grown on the property including Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot were fermented in open topped fermenters and hand plunged twice daily. The wines were all transferred to French oak barrels for malolactic fermentation, with one third new from selected Bordeaux cooperages. The wines were racked twice during their 16 months in barrel with topping up of barrels every 4 weeks. The wine was then racked out of barrel and blended. Following trials it was decided that fining was not required. The wine was then cross flow filtered prior to bottling.

Colour

A very deep crimson colour with rich hues.

Nose

The wine shows a remarkable complex array of aromas of black cherry, dark fruits, bitter chocolate, forest floor earthiness and pomegranate molasses richness.

Palate

Layers and layers of flavour provide for a seamless palate. The tannins are quite fine and chalky, providing great structure for aging. It is a wine with the richness we saw in the 2007 but with a more elegant finish.

Cellaring

A wine that has the depth and concentration to develop for up to 15 years.