Description

Balgownie Vineyard is a name that should need no introduction to lovers of Victorian wine. An icon
of the 70s and 80s, it has produced some of the most remarkable mature Australian wines I have had
the pleasure of drinking. Indeed my cellar is well stocked with them thanks to 10+ years of
collecting.
Established 1969 200m asl near the banks of Myers Creek in Maiden Gully on Ordovician shale,
quartz and ironstone rubble, thanks to current winemaker Tony Winspear it now supplies me a small
amount of old vine Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the earliest plantings from 1970.
“This vineyard is a national treasure – it has the ability to produce reds from cabernet
sauvignon and shiraz that cellar with the elegance and longevity to rival anything in
Australia” Jeremy Oliver – www.jeremyoliver.com.au
The first to ripen of the three Cabernet Sauvignon sites, these old vines and special place deliver
fruit of extreme concentration and complexity. Harvest occurred around three weeks earlier than
Shays Flat.
Once hand harvested the fruit was entirely de-stemmed, then partially foot crushed before transfer
to open fermenters where it remained for three weeks. The must was allowed to soak until natural
fermentation commenced and was then extracted with a combination pumping over, delestage and
pigeage before basket pressing.
Elevage took place in a combination of new Stockinger 300l (30%) and seasoned thin staved
Bordeaux coopered barriques for 12 months, before four months in stainless steal after assemblage.
The only addition to the wine is a small dose of sulphur.

Deep, dark garnet. A wine which immediately makes one sit up and focus. Refined and complex
with iron, sweet cassis, cedar spice, violet and rose, air reveals infinite nuance and detail. The palate
is flooded with wave upon wave of Cabernet fruit, braced by a strict but not overbearing tannic
structure, finishing with sweet violet and cassis and a wave of perfume. The most refined of the six
Cabernet cuvées, but also the most concentrated and finally balanced. A very worthy follow up to
the 2021 vintage and a wine that displays my most prized characteristics – effortless complexity and
power without weight.
Please decant well prior to drinking, or cellar for as long as you like.