Pre-Release
2020 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

winemaker's note

We are supremely proud at Deep Woods to be recognised as producing the ‘World’s Best Cabernet’ in this year’s Decanter wine awards. It is a true recognition of just how wonderful our unique region of Margaret River is and how committed the entire Deep Woods team is to the production of the world’s finest wines.

This wine for me is a lovely triumph in what was an extremely difficult year in general…  A gentle reminder, if you will, that life rolls on and nature will stay its course despite the folly’s of human and global pandemics perhaps.

One of my favourite vintages of Reserve Cabernet – the 2020 is as good as the excellent 2012 and 2014 vintages and, perhaps in time, as good as the 2018 but likely more approachable on release than all of them. I'll be getting a few for the cellar as they are awesome - and to remind me of the great things that come from challenging times.

Julian Langworthy, Chief Winemaker

colour

Vibrant, inky purple.

aroma

The nose has layers of dark fruits, satsuma plums and bitter cocoa, interwoven and laced together by amazing violet inspired florals.

palate

The palate is a triumph: silky-smooth yet latently powerful and long. A riot of dark fruits and sweet spices is complex and beguiling. Its true hallmark is the ethereally fine tannins that suspend these flavours in glorious tandem, running long and sweetly across the palate.

cellaring

A wine for the ages or a wine for immediate appeal but one to secure in a hurry. This is a wine that you could drink tomorrow or cellar for a decade. 

vintage

2020 – well what a year it was. Mid-vintage went by in the grips of a global pandemic and coupled with a pretty big rain event the vintage was a challenge, to say the least. However, in true Margaret River style the sun came out in late March and early April and we were rewarded with some wonderful Cabernet fruit.

winemaking

Representing the pinnacle of the Deep Woods house style, this Cabernet Sauvignon was crafted from the ultra-low yielding, original vines on the estate, along with fruit from the Abbey Vale vineyard also in the Yallingup Hills.

The ferments were assessed daily and pump-overs were performed as required to gently extract colour, flavour and tannin. The wine was gently pressed to a combination of new and seasoned French barriques, where it matured in oak for 18 months.

region

Margaret River

variety

Cabernet Sauvignon

analysis

• Alcohol: 14.0%
• pH: 3.44
• TA: 6.65 g/L

Charred barbecue scotch fillet with chimichurri sauce and grilled corn salsa.

Decanter World Wine Awards 2022

Best in Show 

The world's greatest red wines often seem infused with a sense of refinement and ease when mature, no matter how dense and impenetrable they appear in youth. This hallmark of this finely crafted Cabernet Sauvignon from Margaret River is that, youthful as it is, it’s able to convey both density and refined ease simultaneously. In colour it's dark black-purple, and you'll find remarkable fruit concentration and closeness of texture in the mouth. Yet the aromas are warm, open and resonant, pure and unthrusting, and such is the clarity of organisation of the palate, finesse of the tannins and delicacy of that fruit that it already drinks with the serenity of a fully mature wine. Fine craftsmanship here.

Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

From the original 1987 plantings in Yallingup. Superb power here. Dense blackcurrant with bay leaf, gravel, dark chocolate and black olive flavours sweeping through, floral notes lifting above. It's both structured and svelte but the serious density of fruit here, in the context of vigour, is a dramatic marker of its quality, and potential longevity. This wine is not inexpensive but, it could easily be argued it's worth every cent, relative to its competitors, from here and abroad. In short, it's a fantastic red wine, full-bodied and rock solid.

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