2025 Josh Cooper Balgownie Old Vines Maiden Gully Cabernet Sauvignon 750Ml

"This could be the last we see of this wine and site? Maybe.

It’s a substantial and quietly powerful wine. Massive inward concentration, inky texture, grippy, silty tannin in a web shaping things, huge perfume of wild berries and mint and chocolate and sooty spice. The palate, a delight, a flowing, sleek thing of darkness, woody spice and savoury things. Dustiness here in a good way. There’s a distinct kind of old school, good school feel here, perhaps pushed through a modern lens, but leaning into more laid back, wine-for-cellaring vibes. And yet, the finesse seeps into things and convinces you to drink now. Compelling." 95+ Pts. - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front

A swan song from this special vineyard

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. Indeed my cellar is well stocked with them thanks to 10+ years of collecting. 

Established 1969 200m asl 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. 

“This vineyard is a national treasure - it has the ability to produce reds from cabernet sauvignon and shiraz that cellar with the elegance and longevity to rival anything in Australia”  Jeremy Oliver - www.jeremyoliver.com.au 

These old vines and special place deliver fruit of extreme concentration and complexity. 

Once hand harvested the fruit was entirely de-stemmed, then partially foot crushed before transfer to open fermenters where it remained for three weeks. The must was allowed to soak until natural fermentation commenced and was then extracted with a combination pumping over, delestage and pigage before basket pressing. 

Elevage took place in a combination of new Stockinger 300l (30%) and seasoned thin staved Bordeaux coopered barriques for 12 months, before four months in stainless steal after assemblage.

Deep, inky garnet. A wine which immediately makes one sit up and focus. Refined and complex with graphite, sweet cassis, cedar spice, violet and rose, air reveals infinite nuance and detail and a briny, nori like complexity. The palate is flooded with wave upon wave of dark Cabernet fruit, braced by a strict but not overbearing tannic structure and refreshing acid, finishing with sweet violet and cassis, and a wave of perfume. 

The most refined of the Cabernet cuvées, but also the most concentrated and finally balanced. The best vintage yet for us from this wonderful site and vintage and a wine that displays my most prized characteristics - effortless complexity and power without weight. 

Please decant well prior to drinking, or cellar for as long as you like. 300 produced." - Joshua Cooper on 2025