Nugan Estate SV Stomper’s Cabernet 2012
9/15/14
The nose has good lift offering up black currant and blackberry fruit with a touch of the varietal’s leafiness and a light mint element. Concentrated, yet quite lively in the palate with an abundance of ripe black fruits, there’s noted vibrancy from a nice undercurrent of acidity, while riper tannins add just the right amount of tension on the backend. Supple textured and bright with impressive fruit intensity and freshness on its medium fuller frame, this has good length on its fruit driven finish. Working this for three days the wine gained more flesh and mid palate breadth without losing any vibrancy and freshess. This is impressive and represents excellent value.
90 pts Stephen Tanzer’s IWC
Brilliant ruby. Tight, sharply focused nose displays scents of blackberry, cassis, graphite and mint, lifted by a lavender topnote. Dense yet lively on the palate, offering intense dark fruit flavors that become sweeter with air. Supple tannins frame the incisive finish, which lingers with very good fruit-driven intensity.
Our cabernet vineyard requires more work than the shiraz and it’s become a favorite for the birds as the bunches ripen. Stomper has his hands full indeed. We work hard to stress the soils and slow down the ripening of the cabernet because it helps achieve the flavors we like so much. Darren Owers our winemaker, reckons our cabernet is the best in the region and praises Stomper for the world he does in the vineyard. Our fruit is destemmed and pressed before going through a lengthy cold soaking. After fermentation, we macerate on the skins for about 10 days to extract soft tannins and deep, rich flavors. There’s never any short cuts on the barrel program and this wine sees only French oak, of which 25% is new. Since there are several different parcels on the vineyard and they’re always kept separate throughout the entire process, putting the final blend together takes several days and is a major team effort. We’re really proud of this and hope yo like it.
