Tasting Notes
colour
Bright and shiny highlighting purple hues.
aroma
Dark dense sweet concentrated aromas, with typical varietal Cabernet Sauvignon characters like cedar pencil shavings, freshly cut grass and an abundance of fresh blue fruits, also beautiful aromas of violets. Attractive savoury dried herbs notes are also evident.
palate
The palate is thick, juicy and luscious. This wine has finesse and elegance. On the mid- palate the wine expands displaying floral blackcurrant notes and rich dark chocolate flavours There are some lovely savoury chewy tannins and all very well integrated with the French oak. The after palate is long and dry with a hint of mocha which lingers for some time. A sensational wine, and as always the Dalwhinnie Cabernets age beautifully.
cellaring
Cellar for 15+ years.
Technical
vintage
Every now and then mother nature challenges you like you wouldn’t believe to make beautiful wine in the Dalwhinnie vineyard. The 2016 vintage was one of those years. The previous six-month growing season gave us below average rainfall which was a concern, but worse than that the flowers on the vines did not set well at all. This was a real concern as the yields were reduced by up to 50% on both red and white grapes. As the growing season progressed into 2016 we did receive some good rain, but some damage had been done with small clusters and tiny berries, although this gave us some of the darkest, strongest and most intense wine we have ever made. These wines need some time, and given at least a couple of years they will show you their true potential. They are colossal red wines!
winemaking
Grapes were picked at optimum ripeness ie 13.0–14.0 Baume over two passes. The grapes were crushed, de-stemmed, inoculated and fermented in small open fermenters. Temperature was controlled at around 26 degrees C. After an eight-day ferment there was a further two weeks of skin contact after the alcoholic fermentation. The wine was then pressed out in a large pneumatic press. The next stage was settling the wine in a stainless steel tank then pumping into French oak barriques for 18 months oak maturation. The wine was filtered and bottled in November the following year.
region
Pyrenees
variety
Cabernet Sauvignon
analysis
- Alcohol: 13.0%
- pH: 3.58
- Acidity (TA): 6.4 g/L
Reviews
Huon Hooke, The Real Review 2022
Very deep red/purple colour, in excellent condition for its age, and a bouquet of tremendous depth and character, undeniably cabernet, mellowing and with a hint of Bonox, the palate concentrated and deep, with assertive tannins and some meaty-charcuterie and toasted-nut undertones. Masses of tannins complete the picture. A very powerful, full-bodied and emphatic cabernet that is destined for a long life. It's a bit on the astringent side right now but a hearty rare steak might take care of that.
96
