The black prince – 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon – our best cabernet yet

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is looking and tasting incredible. Like nothing we have ever grown before. It is a game changer for us. Perfect fruit, evenly ripe with breathtakingly intense and complex flavours. And good heavens … LOOK AT THE COLOUR.

Each perfect bunch of fruit was meticulously selected and harvested by hand. Vintage 2019 was been the most challenging vintage we have ever experienced. Low temperatures and moisture proved a real challenge. This year the grapes ripened five weeks later than usual and as we moved into the colder days botrytis fungus and bunch rot have been a huge issue.

Many southwest vineyards have had a catastrophic vintage, some losing over 50% of their fruit. The cold summer has also meant that there’s been no native tree blossom and the nectar eating birds have had very little to eat. As a consequence the ripening grapes have been under permanent siege for the last six weeks.

But we fought tenaciously, every day. Walking along each vine row and dropping any affected bunches and trimming back the leaf canopy on every vine so that the sun shone evenly onto the ripening bunches and kept them dry.

It’s been a labour of love. Our Vineyard Manager Kim and his two fabulous assistants Campbell and Richard treat our vines as if they were their own. Their faces say it all. Relief, satisfaction and happiness. They have truly done a remarkable job.