A supple, elegant example of cabernet sauvignon that showcases what this sometimes-maligned variety has to offer when grown in a cool climate and made in a lighter frame.
This wine doesn’t hide its cool-climate origin – a pungent green capsicum note leaps out of the glass, flanked by hints of mentholated eucalyptus, chervil and tarragon. Behind the greenery, though, you’ll find a bevy of high-toned red and purple fruit characteristics – just-ripe blood plums, mulberries and loganberries, with a lick of sweet crème de cassis and hints of freshly-turned earth and pouch tobacco. On the palate, the wine is high-toned and bright, with refreshing acidity and an elegant, relatively light body (especially compared to cabernets from warmer regions). The tannins here are silky and fine, with just enough grip to let their presence be known, and an appealingly bitter ferrous note provides a spine around which the tannins and fruit wrap themselves. The finish reveals some discreet spice notes indicative of the wine’s 10% new oak – a little nutmeg, kola nut and a dusting of bitter dark cacao. There’s just enough fruit ripeness and fleshiness here to ensure that the wine doesn’t tip over into the cool-climate cabernet trap of ‘mean and green’ – instead this is an elegant, compelling example of why cool-climate viticulture, if matched with thoughtful winemaking, might just be the thing to salvage cabernet’s reputation.
Cabernet sauvignon is the world’s most planted grape variety and is grown all over the wine world, with it even persisting in some of the cooler margins of viticultural zones. When things get properly cold, cabernet has little chance of ripening, but many warm regions have long histories with the grape, even if some purists argue that it loses varietal definition if it gets too ripe. Bordeaux in France’s south-west is the spiritual home of cabernet sauvignon, where it is almost always blended with one or more of its Bordelaise compatriots: cabernet franc, merlot, petit verdot and malbec, and where it forms part of some of the world’s most expensive and sought-after wines. Cabernet has been in Australia about as long as any variety, coming across in the Busby Collection of the 1830s. It has since found its most successful homes in Coonawarra, Margaret River and the Yarra Valley, but the oldest plantings are to be found in the warmer zones of the Barossa and Clare Valleys. It can surprisingly produce wines of distinction even in some of the coldest regions, such as Tasmania and Macedon – though a beneficial site is essential for success.
One of the paradoxes of cool-climate wines is that they can – when grown under the right circumstances – taste exceptionally ripe. Chalk this up to what viticulturists and winemakers call ‘hang time’, or the duration that bunches of fruit stay on the vine. In cooler climates such as Tasmania’s, wine grapes can take a leisurely stroll towards picking time, allowing sugar levels to gradually accumulate while the grapes build extra layers of ‘phenolic’ or flavour ripeness, and cool nights keep the acid levels nice and high to balance the finished wine. It sounds like a dream in theory, but in practice it’s a high-wire act: the longer the grapes stay out in the vineyard, the more likely they are to be decimated by weather, disease, or pests – and in cooler years the bunches may never quite arrive at their theoretical destination.
A vast region, Gippsland stretches from Westernport Bay right across eastern Victoria to the New South Wales border. And although many of the wineries are on the western end of the GI, with a concentration in the unofficial subzone of South Gippsland, the region still has a vast array of macroclimates and geological variations. Even with that variability, it’s safe to say that pinot noir and chardonnay are the regional strengths, with generally cool conditions and good rainfall consistent themes.
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