29 year old vines. The fruit was thinned on the vines to reduce yields, ensuring quality, and was harvested by hand in two batches to ensure optimum ripeness. The 2003 vintage included a warm dry spring and a few hot days just before the vintage, which resulted in lower acidities, high sugar levels and great colors. After temperature-controlled fermentation, the wine aged for 20 months in French and American oak.
Deep, dark crimson color, with a bouquet of blackcurrant, pepper and oak. Soft in the mouth with flavors of blackcurrant and dark cherry, complimented by the perfect integration of sweet cedary oak supported by velvety tannins. An elegant wine that drinks well now, though careful cellaring will be rewarded for up to 10 years (2016). Serve with roast beef, pork chops, or hard cheeses.
Beef, Hard Cheese, Pork Chops/Loin, Roasted Red Meats
Redgate made its first appearance in our brochures in 2003, when we offered two of their wines. Since then, we have featured Redgate on several occasions, with the number of wines featured growing each time. Western Australia has built a reputation for its high-quality, boutique wineries, and Redgate was one of the region’s trailblazers. In 1976 , when Bill Ullinger purchased the land, he was one of only 10 producers in the whole region, now he counts almost 200 producers among his neighbors – an indication of Western Australian wine’s rapid progress. He planted the first vines the following year in ‘77, and released the first wine in 1981. Their first major award came soon after when their 1982 Cabernet Sauvignon was named Best in Show at the Adelaide Wine Show. Like most small wineries, Redgate’s focus was on creating high quality wines, and, when the opportunity arose, in 1995, to hire a burgeoning young winemaker, Andrew Forsell, they jumped at the opportunity. They have relied on the skills of Andrew’s 20 years of experience in California and Australia. Since then, their Cabernet Sauvignon has continued to earn top honors, and their other wines, including their Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon and Bin 588 red blend have earned praise as well.
The Margaret River region is the westernmost part of Western Australia. Surrounded on three sides by water, it receives the strongest maritime influence in the area, benefiting from the cool breezes off the Indian Ocean. temperature is most commonly likened to that of Pomerol and St. Emilion in Bordeaux, while rainfall levels are more similar to those of the Mediterranean. soils consist of a gravel and sandy loam made mostly from the underlying granite and gneissic rock. region is best known for its Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, but also produces a number of other fine varieties, including Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Verdelho.
Overview Australia is one of the most technologically advanced wine regions on earth and has experienced a wine boom in the past decade due to the approachability and quality of its wines. Shiraz is synonymous with Australia—a powerful red with huge fruit, spice and tannins, with as much character as the Aussies themselves. Australian winemakers also blend together different varieties, striving to produce very fruit-forward and well-balanced wines. This country crafts great whites as well; the Verdelho grapes produce a full-bodied wine with tangy acidity and honeysuckle undertones.
Unlike in Europe where the wine producer is often a family with limited acreage, Australia has had, over the last 50 years, a huge consolidation in the wine industry, which has led to 6 or 7 companies of gigantic size controlling 75% of Australian wine.
Of course, there is still a spirit of independence among the Australian growers. While the large producers dominate southeastern Australia (Sidney, Melbourne, or Adelaide), there are still a number of high-quality small growers. In addition, there are more and more new wineries on the western coast, and most of them are family businesses.
Climate Situated between the 30th and 40th parallels, Australia is a vast country with a variety of regions boasting vastly different climates: in the north, hot, wet tropics lie across the tropic of Capricorn; across the center an arid desert; and in the south a temperate coast that resembles a Mediterranean climate. It is this coastline that runs the length (east-west) of the continent that is ideal for winemaking.
Australia offers 60 distinct wine regions (Geographical Indications or GI’s) most of which are scattered across the western, southern, and eastern coasts of Australia. For a wine to bear the name of its GI, it must obtain at least 85% of its fruit from the region. Some of most famous wine regions are: Margaret River in Western Australia; Barossa Valley and Clare Valley in South Australia; Yarra Valley in Victoria; Hunter Valley in New South Wales; and Granite Belt in Queensland.
While the southern coast resembles the Mediterranean climate, there are several factors that influence in the region setting it apart from other vine growing regions. In Australia, most of the semi-temperate regions (where wines can grow) abut big deserts to their north (central Australia), which heavily influence the winemaking. These regions (excluding Western Australia), therefore, must contend with hot winds blowing in off the deserts, which have forced the producers to adapt their winemaking techniques to prevent wines from becoming so high in alcohol that they lose other important characteristics.
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