A darkly coloured wine with a refined, brooding attitude. A wonderfully scented nose of blackcurrant, blood plum and fresh cold drip coffee with background spices of nutmeg and clove. Dense flavours of black fruit, spice and cedar are seamless across the front, mid and back palate. With all the density and brooding don’t be fooled into thinking it is a heavy beast. There is an elegance and thought provoking quality to this wine that comes through from the brightness of fruit and the vibrancy of the natural acid. The wine concludes with classic varietal tannins that are powdery and fine, wound tightly around a ripe core of fruit, driving the persistent finish and indicating a strong ageing potential.
Enjoy this wine with pan seared lamb chops, anchovy butter, celery root puree and Mediterranean green beans.
Single Vineyard - Cavicchiolo Vineyard (-36.727594, 146.331333)
Graeme and Maggie Ray started their vineyard in 1978, planting small quantities of Riesling and Chardonnay. Over time the vineyard has grown in planting size to over 30ha with the addition of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Barbera. It is situated on northeast-facing slopes at an altitude of 350 metres, with warm summer days and cool nights. The torch has now passed to new owners David and Fleur Cavicchiolo, who have elevated the property to be one of the premier King Valley vineyards. The secret to the Cavicchiolo Vineyard success is really no secret at all – passion, attention to detail and a great vineyard site.
VALLEY SELECTION
Our Valley Selection range of small batch wines are created from parcels of fruit carefully selected by our winemakers from a single vineyard. The wines explore the individuality of each variety and our expression of wine styles, while reflecting the unique region in which they are grown. Each bottle captures the essence of the growing season and the vineyard, nurtured by our growers, and then passionately crafted by our winemakers into remarkable and age-worthy wines.
THE WINEMAKING
Harvested in the cool morning on the 6th of April at a temperature of 12°C, the low yielding grapes reached optimum flavour and tannin ripeness at a baumé of 14.2. The grapes were destemmed, crushed to a static red fermenter to cold soak for a period of three days. It was then inoculated with a specially selected Cabernet yeast strain and fermented for twelve days reaching a peak of 30°C. The must was pumped over the skins daily, allowing a gentle extraction to achieve great colour, varietal flavours and excellent tannin structure. The wine was then pressed off skins into oak barrels, of which 25% was new French oak, with the remainder being one, two and three-year-old French oak. The wine completed malolactic fermentation in barrel, allowing oak to be integrated into the wine. During 20 months of oak maturation, the wine was minimally handled to preserve the unique characters that the region and vineyard bestows on this individual wine.
THE VINTAGE
A cold wet start to the growing season proved challenging in the vineyards with fruit set and ultimately yields lower than average. Summer began with high humidity, but during the ripening period became stable and dry. A balanced and even development of flavour and tannin ripeness occurred with fine natural acidity retained across all varieties. While the quantity of grapes was down in 2022, quality was fantastic.
