Why you'll love this wine
Petit Verdot is a variety which is most commonly known as a blending component of the famous Bordeaux blends. With the Estate Petit Verdot vines first planted in 1996, Millbrook Winery has taken this lesser-known French varietal and firmly planted it in the spotlight of the Perth Hills wine region in Western Australia.
This is a richly concentrated wine with a dark core of blackberry, cherry, cola and licorice. Full-bodied and larger-than-life, this is a structured wine with ripe tannins ensuring a long, powerful finish. As Campbell Mattinson of the Halliday Wine Companion once said of the Millbrook Winery Estate Petit Verdot: "If you're going to single out Petit Verdot, make it a goodun'; this one is."
Tasting Notes
colour
Inky deep purple.
aroma
Huge, vibrant and abundant nose, bursting with black and red berries.
palate
A rich, concentrated core of blackberry, overlaid with smooth morello cherry and notes of cola and licorice. A full-bodied, larger-than-life style, with great structure supported by rich, ripe tannins that ensure a long, textured finish.
cellaring
While it's drinking beautifully now, the power and concentration of this style give it the potential to age for ten or more years from vintage.
Technical
vintage
The Petit Verdot vines on the Millbrook estate were planted in 1996 on a shallow gravel ridge, with a south-west aspect. The year began with some late rain occurring in early February. Everything on the estate was still unripe and so wasn’t affected negatively. The remainder of the growing season was warm and dry which allowed for the fruit to ripen at full potential with no issue.
winemaking
All the fruit was hand harvested from the estate vineyards in Jarrahdale. It was cold soaked for three days prior to a ten-day fermentation, with the cap plunged twice daily for optimal colour and flavour extraction. Following a gentle pressing, the wine was matured for 20 months in 50% new and 50% one-year-old French oak barriques.
region
Perth Hills (Millbrook Winery Estate)
variety
Petit Verdot
analysis
- Alcohol: 14.5%
- pH: 3.7
- TA: 7.2 g/L
Food Pairings
Fabulous with a herb-crusted roast rack of Western Australian lamb.
