2023 The Gambler Cabernet Malbec

Jo Seabrook’s maternal ‘papa’, Jack Comerford, was a cheeky, fiery, and kind Irishman, who made a living farming broad-acre wheat, barley, and sheep. During his youth, he discovered a love of fast cars and gambling, which meant when he wasn’t on the farm, he was at the races! He is fondly remembered with a tobacco pipe and encircled in billowing smoke.

TASTING NOTE: The Cabernet Malbec is rich in dark berry fruits with hints of clove spice. Savoury fruits, strawberries, subtle oak and soft mouth-watering acidity together with long fine tannins completing this blend.

VINEYARD:Cabernet Sauvignon grown on our ‘Home Block’ estate vineyard, on the Eastern Ridge of the Barossa Valley. The rows are orientated north south and the vineyard captures most of the afternoon sun. The shallow soils consist of innocuous clay and loams over white non-reactive clays. This coupled with the orientation and aspect, allow perfect conditions for early ripening. The small berry size and the low cropping levels provide much of the concentration needed for the blend. The Malbec comes from the North East in Marananga producing slow ripened premium Malbec

HARVEST:Great winter and spring rains helped fill the soil profile and set up the vines for a good season. A windy spring resulted in poor fruit set which resulted in a lower than first estimated crop. Late spring and summer were quite dry and hot. Ripening was fast in the first and second weeks of January and we thought we may be the earliest harvest on record. A late rain event in February resulted in 100 mm of rain which slowed ripening down. Harvest commenced on 18th of March, just a week later after the rain event.

WINEMAKING:The Cabernet Sauvignon was machine harvested and crushed and destemmed to open top fermenters. The fruit was inoculated with organic yeast and allowed to slowly warm up. The fermentation peaked at 28 degrees on day two and was cooled to finish its ferment at 22 degrees. This peak in temperature helped to extract bright red berry fruits and more structural tannins with lower presence of alcohol. The fermentation was dry on day six and left on skins for a further four days. The ferment was hand plunged three times a day then pressed off skins to oak barrels and left to go through Malo naturally.  

MANDATORIES:Alc./Vol: 14.0%

Recent Awards:

2018 (Previous Vintage) – 94/100 – Winestate Magazine

Haliday wine companion 92