Heartland Cabernet Sauvignon, Langhorne Creek, Australia

Heartland Cabernet Sauvignon just received the award for “Best Buys in 2019 Brilliant Budget Drops 90/100” in Jeremy Oliver’s Good Wine Guide 2019. His tasting note: gravelly & evenly paced, marrying a slightly minty cut of dark berry/plum fruit with cedary oak & a genuine backbone.

Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon

Region: Langhorne Creek

Soil: Langhorne Creek: Sandy loam
Tasting notes:

If colour tells a story, then this is one of depth and character.  Appealing floral notes give nuance to the attractive red fruit so abundant on the nose.  Blackcurrant leads an ensembe cast of spices and herbs that act as a perfect foil to this wine’s mesmerizing display of fruit.

Vinification:
The fruit was crushed into 8 tonne open fermenters, left on skins to cold macerate for three days prior to fermentation. Fermentation occurred at or under 23°C (with a Rhône isolate yeast).  This helped to extract the skin tannin while maintaining aromatics. The wine underwent its malolactic transformation in oak, was then racked and returned to French and American oak for a 12-month maturation.

2014 Vintage:
2014 followed the classic road of a late vintage accompanying a late Easter. Deep soil moisture from a traditional winter flood bolstered us against the warm summer days, as did the cooling Langhorne Creek winds. We were spared the late February rains that harried other regions in South Australia. A generous year in both quantity and quality of fruit.

Alc/Vol: 14.5%

Maturation vessel: 100% oak.

Oak type: 80% French, 20% American hogsheads

Age of barrels: 1-3yrs

Time in barrel: 12 months

Age of vines: 20 yrs+

Yield: 4-5 tonnes/ha

Suitable for vegans: Yes