Woodlands Cabernet Franc Merlot ‘Emily’ Special Reserve 2021

Woodlands has been producing ‘Emily’ since 1989. Woodlands had almost ceased production at the time, and almost all of the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit was sold each year. David Watson and his great friend Peter Anderson discussed what to do with the remaining Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, and a little Cabernet Sauvignon. The idea came to make a “right bank” Saint-Émilion blend and call it “Emily”.

When the decision was made to purchase the Woodlands Brook Vineyard, we certainly believed its existing plantings to be serendipitous – no Cabernet Sauvignon (yet), but there was Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot planted on a gentle north facing slope of sandy loam.  So, from 2008 ‘Emily’ became both our expression of the “right bank” blend, and the expression of that site at Woodlands Brook. This wine is made in very limited quantities, with only 300 cases being able to be produced each year.

Like all red wines at Woodlands, this wine was destemmed and sorted by our gravity fed system. Once harvested and in the winery, the fruit was delivered to the destemmer by a vibrating hopper, where the stems are removed by a swinging motion. Once destemmed, the fruit passed over a vibrating sorting table. Following fermentation this wine was matured in French oak barrels for 14 months, of which forty percent were new.