2022 Josh Cooper Balgownie Old Vines Maiden Gully Cabernet Sauvignon 750Ml Bottle

'A significant cabernet for Australian wine, again. Elegant, refined, silky as with an authority of silty tannin that stretches long into the distance. [..] It sits at medium weight, poised, everything seamless and in its place and delivers a rush from the perfume, evocative, serious all over. The wine is delicious and refreshing while being backed with fruit, tannin, cool acid profile, mineral charm, herbal elements, savoury qualities. Fine, fine wine. Watch it go.' 96+ points - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front

Balgownie Vineyard is a name that should need no introduction to lovers of Victorian wine. An icon of the 70s and 80s, it has produced some of the most remarkable mature Australian wines I have had the pleasure of drinking. Established in 1969 200masl near the banks of Myers Creek in Maiden Gully on Ordovician shale, quartz and ironstone rubble, thanks to current winemaker Tony Winspear it now supplies me a small amount of old vine Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the earliest plantings from 1970. These old vines and special place deliver fruit of extreme concentration and complexity. Hand harvested, 100% destemmed, then partially foot crushed before transfer to open fermenters where it remained for three weeks. Elevage took place in a combination of new (30%) and seasoned barriques for 12 months, before four months in stainless steel after assemblage.

"Deep, dark garnet. A wine which immediately makes one sit up and focus. Refined and complex with iron, sweet cassis, cedar spice, violet and rose, air reveals infinite nuance and detail. The palate is flooded with wave upon wave of Cabernet fruit, braced by a strict but not overbearing tannic structure, finishing with sweet violet and cassis and a wave of perfume. A very worthy follow up to the 2021 vintage; effortless complexity and power without weight. Please decant well prior to drinking, or cellar for as long as you like." - Joshua Cooper