Menzies is a stellar single vineyard Cabernet from the House of Yalumba, grown to an exceptional site at the heart of cigar shaped Coonawarra Terra rossa. Since inaugural vintage, Menzies has been crafted to small batch techniques, maintaining the integrity of each constituent parcel right through to maturation. Only the finest of the candidate wines of vintage are selected before assembling into Yalumba's flagship Cabernet, crammed with rich blackberry fruit, supported by the most extravagant oak and polished, showroom tannins.
Named after Australia's own Churchillian prime minister and red wine enthusiast, Menzies grows in stature and quality with each vintage. Grapes are crushed into small static fermenters where the liberations of colour and tannin are controlled by plunging the skins, irrigating the fermented wine over the cap and draining the juices from skins before flooding them back. Select parcels are given extended skin contact before pressing. Components are aged eighteen months in a selection of new and prior use American, Hungarian and French oak hogsheads and barriques, crafted at the Yalumba cooperage. The parts are assembled and treated to a further term in barrel before bottling.
Deep red with crimson hues. A bouquet of powerful cool climate Cabernet, notes of violet and briars, dark cherries, dark mocha couverture and hints of dry leaf forest floor. Rich and full bodied palate showing bright, ripe fruits of cassis and dark berries, savoury plums, the characteristic sea spray notes of Menzies vineyard. Mid palate is full of structure, finishing on a lingering length of powdery tannins.
