Windows Estate- Petit Lot Cabernet 2017

The oldest Cabernet vines were planted in Home Block in 1999 on a small ridge with the soil comprised mainly of gravelly loam. The vines are planted in a North South row orientation allowing for optimal sunlight and ripening time, they are also dry farmed. These are combined with Cabernet from Lucas Block to make the wine.

Soil Type(s): Ancient laterite, clay and granite soils

Great care is taken to handle the fruit as gently as possible throughout all the processing stages. Handpicked in the early hours of the morning, the grapes are sorted, crushed and destemmed before being fermented in small open fermenters. The ferments are regularly plunged by hand ensuring optimum color and tannin extraction, and the wine is given extended maceration once fermented dry. Basket pressed, matured in the finest quality French barriques for 18 months and rounded out by a small addition of Petit Verdot (3%) prior to bottling this is a smooth and stylish wine that displays all the hallmarks of a classic Margaret River Cabernet.

The winter was a long one in 2016, so bud burst and flowering occurred much later than seen in recent years. The weather pattern over this period was very favorable, however, and so we saw very even and consistent flowering and fruit set was excellent. In anticipation of a cool vintage Chris decided early on to do lots of additional work in the vineyard, which really paid off when the summer months that followed proved to be unusually cool and saw above average levels of rainfall. Throughout spring he had thinned out the crowns in order to open up the canopies and promote airflow, and the red varieties were all heavily leaf plucked around the bunches to give the fruit ample sun light exposure in order to ensure full phenolic ripeness was achieved even in this cool vintage. There’s no denying it was a long and arduous vintage this year, it was actually the latest on record for the winery. But the results more than justify the effort, and the fact that several of our hand pickers commented on our fruit being the cleanest they had picked this season is testament to the effectiveness of Chris’ hands-on approach to managing their little vineyard.

Ribeye, Roasted Beets, Venison, Shepherd's Pie, Grilled Shishito Peppers, Stuffed Peppers, Chimichurri, Churruscarria

• American, Vegetarian, Brazilian