1998 Rosemount Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Notes sourced from Rosemount Estate.

Around the World, Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the most widely used grape varieties in contemporary quality red winemaking. It is an agreeable variety to grow, with its naturally thick skin and small berries lending themselves to making full bodied, flavoursome wine. In Australia, it can produce magnificent, intensely flavoured wines with great ageing potential. This wine combines some of Australia's finest wine regions, including McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek and Mudgee.The 1998 South Australian growing season enjoyed some very welcome late winter showers in August and into September, which helped to facilitate an even budburst, flowering and fruitset. The warm weather arrived in November, however the temperatures did not rise to levels of the previous vintage. As a result there were fewer periods of extreme heat as one would normally expect in the months leading up to harvest.The lack of really hot weather combined with the cool nights played a large role in fixing acid, tannin and colour stability in the red grapes. The onset of hotter weather in mid March did much to concentrate the fruit flavours and accelerate the final fruit ripening. The grapes for this wine came principally from our McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek vineyards, as well as a proportion from Mudgee, New South Wales. To add complexity and fullness to the palate, a small proportion of Cabernet Franc was included in the selection.The grapes were crushed and de-stemmed on arrival before fermentation. A warm ferment between 28-30º C with regular pumping over helped with extraction of colour and flavour. Post fermentation, the wine was kept on skins for a further 5-7 days to allow the extraction of soft tannins. It was then transferred to French and American oak barriques of various ages. The wine remained in oak for nearly 9 months and was racked every three months for aeration and clarification.The 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon is showing a full crimson body with a lively pink edge. There are well defined varietal characters of blackcurrant and capsicum on the nose with subtle, smoky hints of well integrated oak. The palate shows rich, ripe berry flavours with well defined tannins and a lingering aftertaste of wood smoke and ripe summer fruits. The wine will improve well in the bottle over the next five years.