Home > Wines We Love > 2024 Bloomfield Petit Verdot

How do you make a daggy grape variety like petit verdot interesting again? You hand some over to Bloomfield’s Lauren Hansen – who will turn it into a juicy, bouncy, vibrant delight of a chillable red wine via the magic of carbonic maceration – that’s how.

Producer
Bloomfield
Region

Limestone Coast
RRP

$38
Vintage

2024
Variety/Varieties

Petit verdot
Alc./Vol.

13.5%

You have to feel pity for poor old petit verdot. While its Bordelaise blending partner cabernet sauvignon still remains the world’s most widely planted wine grape variety, and cabernet’s BFF merlot slides into second place, petit verdot remains a resolutely minor player both in Bordeaux and elsewhere around the world. That role isn’t helped by its viticultural quirks, or by the fact that its firm tannins and dense fruit profile make it a hard sell as an unblended varietal wine. Thank goodness for Bloomfield’s Lauren Hansen – winner of the 2025 Young Gun of Wine Best New Act trophy – who uses carbonic maceration and reduced skin contact to turn this typically ponderous variety into a joyous, vibrant affair that’s begging for a quick spin in the esky before you crack it on the picnic rug.

Tasting Note

This wine is Violet Beauregard’s demise in a glass – purple-fruited, round on the palate, and surprisingly buoyant. It opens with a little dill-like hint of something savoury and vegetal, alongside a tiny whiff of struck-match smokiness, before its vibrant fruit profile leaps out of the glass – blueberry in all of its forms (pie filling, fresh fruit, compote, even blueberry chewing gum), juicy purple plums, sloe berries, freeze-dried açai, Pascall wine gum lollies, and American grape soda. The sheer joyousness of the fruit notes make it hard not to crack a smile. It’s bright and vibrant on the palate, with a rounded mouthfeel made bouncy and lifted by the crunchy freshness of its acidity – a beautiful use of carbonic maceration to create a slurpy, eminently drinkable wine. The herbal savoury note first seen on the nose kicks back in on the finish to add extra layers of nuance. Like a vinous Willy Wonka, Hansen has done something crazily inventive here – this is a brilliant example of how clever techniques can create compelling wines from an under-appreciated variety that might otherwise be forever destined to the role of adding a bit of spine to weak cabernet blends. Serve lightly chilled for best results.

Themes of this wine

Petit verdot

A late-ripening and low-yielding variety, petit verdot is a thick-skinned grape, which translates to plenty of tannin and colour, allied with bright acidity and deep flavour. These characteristics that have made it popular as a minor blending component in Bordeaux, but never as the star of the show; if the traditional Bordeaux varieties are all members of the Beatles, then petit verdot is the region’s Pete Best. Arriving in Australia via Busby’s collection of the 1830s, petit verdot has a long history here, but its presence had always been a modest one until the 1990s. That was when Bill Moularadellis of Kingston Estate took a shine to the variety, appreciating the intensity and freshness it can produce in warm climates, thanks to its very late ripening cycle and relatively low natural vigour. Moularadellis’s championing of the variety saw Australian plantings grow to eclipse those of the variety’s native France four times over by the early 2000s, with Kingston Estate itself making up the lion’s share. Those plantings have receded a little, but Australia still has over 1,100 hectares of petit verdot, making us a leader in arguably the most obscure of the ‘mainstream’ red wine varieties.

Limestone Coast

The Limestone Coast is a large South Australian viticultural zone that hugs the state’s border with Victoria, encompassing six separate official regions. The regions of Mount Benson, Robe, and Mount Gambier sit like pearls on a string along the coast of the Southern Ocean, then extending inland along the Victorian border from Mount Gambier is the most famous of the regions, Coonawarra, followed by Wrattonbully, then Padthaway, which points like a narrow peninsula in the general direction of Adelaide. With its large size and diversity of microclimates, it’s not the easiest zone to make generalisations about, but the biggest clue is in the name – the limestone bedrock that can be found underneath the region’s soils often lends a freshness, elegance, and minerality to the wines that is unmistakeable.

Carbonic maceration (cab-mac)

This technique was made famous by France’s Beaujolais region. It’s basically a ferment of whole bunches in a fermenter or tank that is closed up, allowing the grapes (practically always red-wine varieties) to ferment as whole berries. This gives the finished wines a really vibrant and bright fruit expression – but it can also make them look a bit confected, too, with a characteristic Hubba Bubba–like flavour note that can be a bit too much if the process hasn’t been judiciously handled. In skilled hands, though, it’s a technique that can create deliciously ‘slurpy’ red wines, perfect to go alongside casual meals, whether you’re dining at a Parisian bistro or having a picnic at an Australian beach. The wines usually reward a little chill to give them a little extra energy and focus in the glass, too.

Home > Wines We Love > 2021 Cullen Wines ‘Mangan East Block’

A dark tangle of ripe wild berries, dusky florals and spices are ferried on a palate that has the classic tannic growl of malbec, but with amply generous fruit in support.

Producer
Cullen
Region

Margaret River
RRP

$55
Vintage

2021
Variety/Varieties

Malbec Petit verdot
Alc./Vol.

13.5%

Vanya Cullen’s best known for her iconic cabernet and chardonnay, but her ‘Mangan East Block’, which heroes malbec and petit verdot, is equally deserving of attention. A dark tangle of ripe wild berries, dusky florals and spices are ferried on a palate that has the classic tannic growl of malbec, but with amply generous fruit in support.

Tasting note

This vintage, petit verdot occupies a larger slice of the wine (41%), but malbec is still in majority (49%). There’s a warm generosity matched with a lift of dusky florals and warm spices. Dark forest berries, ripe mulberry and a hint of black cherry sit alongside coca nibs, black spices, pumpernickel and a humus-like earthy note. That spectrum continues on the palate, with fruit generosity well hemmed in by robust tannins, the malbec playing a classic part, with a bitter chocolate grip and mouth puckering dryness, which only adds to the charm.

Themes of this wine

Malbec

Malbec is a French grape that has become much more synonymous with Argentina, where it dominates the country’s vineyards. In Australia, malbec is typically blended as a minor component, but with better vine material and new thinking, malbec’s personality is emerging from the shadows. With a generally dark fruit profile, plums, dark cherries and blackberries, malbec can range from the deeply fruited and ruggedly tannic to more supple and silky expressions – typically those from Argentina, where the vine material is quite different to everywhere else.

Petit Verdot

One of the five principal red grapes of Bordeaux, petit verdot is typically employed in the lowest percentages in blends. It is a late ripener, and the latest of the Bordeaux quintet, often struggling to reach full maturity in its home region. When ripe, however, it has intense flavour, colour, tannin and acidity, making it a compelling blending component. That slow maturation cycle also makes it a good prospect in warmer zones, and it is planted in quite high concentration in Australia’s Riverland, even eclipsing the total plantings in France by a significant margin.

Margaret River

If you’re after a wine region with a healthy dose of conspicuous glamour, then Margaret River has it all. Three hours south of Perth, ‘Margs’ is littered with iconic wineries, many with dazzling cellar doors and world-class restaurants. And then there’s the abundant sunshine, and the beaches – oh, those beaches… It’s a beautiful, beautiful place, and for a young wine region it’s very mature, with well-established paths to success built largely on the twin pillars of chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon (et al). Names like Cullen, Moss Wood, Woodlands, Leeuwin Estate and Vasse Felix feel like they’re etched in stone, but in the last little while, smaller players have been making their mark.

Biodynamic

An organic farming method created by Rudolph Steiner in the 1920s, biodynamics is a slightly mystical approach, employing elaborate organic ‘preparations’ to restore the natural balance of the soil and encourage microorganisms. It also observes the lunar cycle to prescribe actions in the vineyard and winery. Why some of it works is not clearly understood, but it is used by some of the world’s greatest producers.

Home > Wines We Love > 2019 Cullen ‘Mangan East Block’

A Malbec-dominant red from the Mangan Vineyard, across the road from Cullen’s home site, this is brim full of spice and dark fruits with a refined finish – it makes a pretty compelling case for the grape.

Producer
Cullen
Region

Margaret River
RRP

$45
Vintage

2019
Variety/Varieties

Malbec Petit verdot
Alc./Vol.

13.5%

A Malbec-dominant red from the Mangan Vineyard, across the road from Cullen’s home site, this is brim full of spice and dark fruits with a refined finish – it makes a pretty compelling case for the grape.

Tasting note

This is deep and darkly fruited, with so many layers of spice, but it’s not brooding or overly big. Sour black fruits, wild plums, blackberries, mulberries, panforte and licorice on the nose, with a lilting fragrance of violets set against a tarry minerality. Those flavours kick through to the palate, with caraway seed and pumpernickel notes as well. Intense and generously fruited, this has presence without being rich, with a savoury feel to it and deceptive, almost sneaky tannins lying in wait, with hard herb featuring through the long finish.

Themes of this wine

Malbec

Aside from a starring role in the French appellation of Cahors and near idolatry in Argentina, Malbec is generally relegated to be a bit player in blends, classically in Bordeaux and also in the Loire Valley, where it is called cot. Malbec is typically dark fruited, with grippy tannins a major feature.

Margaret River

If you’re after a wine region with a healthy dose of conspicuous glamour, then Margaret River has it all. Three hours south of Perth, ‘Margs’ is littered with iconic wineries, many with dazzling cellar doors and world-class restaurants. And then there’s the abundant sunshine, and the beaches – oh, those beaches… It’s a beautiful, beautiful place, and for a young wine region it’s very mature, with well-established paths to success built largely on the twin pillars of chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon (et al). Names like Cullen, Moss Wood, Woodlands, Leeuwin Estate and Vasse Felix feel like they’re etched in stone, but in the last little while, smaller players have been making their mark, too.

2024 Bloomfield Petit Verdot Limestone Coast

Tasting Note

Themes of this wine

Petit verdot

Limestone Coast

Carbonic maceration (cab-mac)

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Malbec

Petit Verdot

Margaret River

Biodynamic

A Malbec-dominant red from the Mangan Vineyard, across the road from Cullen’s home site, this is brim full of spice and dark fruits with a refined finish – it makes a pretty compelling case for the grape.

Tasting note

Themes of this wine

Malbec

Margaret River

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