Colour:
2023 Merchant Cabernet is medium purple red in colour.
Aroma:
Initially coy, it soon reveals an array of aromatics including cherry, violet, baking spice, black olive, rusty steel, cedar, tobacco and a hint of tomato
Palate:
The medium-full bodied palate is alive with juicy red and blue fruits. Tannins are prominent but extremely fine grained, giving a neat backbone to carry the line of bright fruit purity. Balanced acidity supports the composite of flavours, lending elegance and restraint. Classy subtle oak is evident, adding further depth. Expressive and long in the finish, overall, a well-formed wine.
Recommended Drinking:
Merchant is a classic Barossa Cabernet that can be equally enjoyed now or in a decade.
Vintage 2023 has produced exceptional wines. It was the longest and latest on record, stretching from mid-March to early-May. The vines got off to a superb start with a wet and cool Spring providing plenty of sub-soil moisture for the growing season ahead. Summer brought typically average temperatures and was generally dry with occasional finite rain. The vines were in fantastic condition for slow and steady ripening into Autumn with its mild days, cool nights, and isolated light rain. Yields from 2023 are good and quality is excellent.
Merchant Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from a single vineyard that was planted on the Kalleske property at the end of last century. The hand-pruned vines are low-yielding and are grown in shallow, sandy loam soil over superb deep red clay, providing ideal conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon.
The grapes were picked over a week on April 28th and May 3rd. Following destemming into an open-top fermenter, the musts were fermented for 12 days on skins with hand pump-overs twice a day. After pressing off skins the Cabernet was filled to a mix of one third new and the balance used French oak hogsheads, where the wine underwent natural malolactic fermentation. The Cabernet was matured in barrel for a year prior to bottling.