2019 Expressions Smooth Operator Cabernet Merlot
Vendor Evans & Tate

2019 Expressions Smooth Operator Cabernet Merlot

Regular price: $19.00
Club price: $16.00
$16.00
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Tasting Notes

colour

Vibrant, deep purple-red with an inky black heart. 

aroma

Unmistakably Cabernet Merlot from Margaret River, with lovely purity and intensely varietal characters of blood plums, violets and bay leaf driving the nose.  

palate

The palate is elegant with fine, smooth tannins and a richly flavoured core of sweet fruit. The finish is soft, long and effortless; typical of this esteemed blend from Margaret River.

cellaring

Drinking beautifully now and over the next three to five years. 

Technical

vintage

The 2019 vintage in the Margaret River region can be summarised as late, (mainly due to the cool spring and summer), low yielding, and with some disease pressure. The blocks required careful management and those that received early and careful leaf and shoot removal thrived. The low red yields and very good ripening month of April meant we achieved soft, ripe tannins and full long flavours in our red wine styles.

winemaking

The parcels of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot used are located in the central and northern parts of the region. These strategic locations were chosen on their ability to consistently produce a wine with intense colour, ripe fruit flavours and a fine, silken tannin profile with the ability to age. Some parcels of Merlot fruit were picked between midnight and early morning to ensure it reached the winery as cold as possible. The fruit was then gently destemmed and transferred to a fermenter where it was held cold for 3-4 days prior to fermentation.

The majority of Cabernet parcels were left on skins post-fermentation for 7-10 days. At completion of time on skins, each parcel was pressed separately to tank before being racked off yeast lees to barrel.  8% of the Cabernet was matured in new French oak hogsheads with the balance of the Cabernet and all of the Merlot being matured in 1 to 5 year old French oak hogsheads and barriques. Each parcel was matured in oak for between 10 and 16 months and were kept separate until the final blending stage to assess the development of each. Following trials, the wine was minimally handled by being blended in tank with no fining required before being filtered only once and matured in bottle prior to release.

region

Margaret River

varieties

Cabernet Sauvignon

Merlot 

analysis

  • Alc: 14.5%
  • pH: 3.56
  • Acidity (TA): 5.64 g/L

Food Pairings

Barbequed meats & gourmet sausages with a zesty potato salad and slaw. 

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