2016 Dry Red Wine No. 1 (Cellar Damaged Labels)

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Aroma: Stylish, lifted nose settling into itself after a few years in bottle. Shows signature blackberry, aniseed, sarsaparilla, marzipan and cassis with hints of bergamot and sage.

Palate: A medium-bodied style featuring a fleshy, fruit-layered palate integrated with earthy complexity. Juicy acidity, characteristic of this vineyard, underlays soft expansive fruit and fine dusty tannins. In true Yarra Yering tradition, it combines power with poise, concentration with finesse.

All hand harvested as well as processing across a sorting table, only the best berries go into this wine. The Cabernet fruit is crushed to build structure through fermentation. Merlot, Malbec and Petit verdot are whole berry ferments for fragrance and palate flesh. All fermented in half-tonne fermenters and hand plunged twice daily, some of the Cabernet spending extended time on skins. Components kept separate in French oak barrels, only 40% of them new until being blended just before bottling after 15 months barrel maturation.

Varietals: Cabernet sauvignon 66%, Merlot 16%, Malbec 15%, Petit verdot 3%

Region: Yarra Valley (Gruyere)

Season:

Vines: The first plantings at Yarra Yering into block No.1 were these Cabernet vines and the name was born. The Malbec was also part of the original 1969 plantings. Some Merlot vines are interplanted with the Cabernet with subsequent plantings made in 1990 on the newly acquired neighbouring land. Petit verdot is now only grown on the hillside of the new territories.

Cellaring: A great old wine had to be a great young wine. While this wine is great now, it is very compressed, this vineyard has a proven pedigree & track record thus it will continue to evolve for a further 25+ years under suitable cellaring conditions.

Analysis: 14.0 % ALC