Woodlands Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Matthew’ 2014

This wine is a blend of 94% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Malbec and 2% Cabernet Franc.

This wine was harvested between 25th of March and the 9th of April, yielding 6.21 tonnes per hectare. After being picked, the fruit was destemmed before passing over our vibrating sorting table. Once sorted and crushed, this wine was fermented in small closed fermenters. Following fermentation, the Cabernet Sauvignon must remained on skins for 28 days before being pressed for the secondary malolactic fermentation to occur. Afterwards, the wine was transferred into new French medium toast barrels to mature for 19 months.

The colour is intense deep crimson. The nose is expressive and powerful, showing primary Cabernet characters of blackcurrant, mulberry and dark cherry combined with tight grained French oak.

On opening the palate is dense, but shows great balance and finesse. There is a lovely softness and suppleness to the palate that overlays a powerful core of old vine Cabernet fruit. Hints of vanilla, mint and bay leaf emerge and combine with the primary fruit flavours as the wine opens up over the first hour. Given enough air and time, the tannins soften and the wine opens up to reveal more nuance, but still at this stage maintaining its youthful power.

All 2014’s from Woodlands show the generosity of the vintage, and our Cabernet Sauvignon shows it most of all. This wine takes you straight to the Woodlands cellar, where you can smell the barrels being racked and washed, and the must being pressed – this wine still maintains the primacy it had straight off the press.