Wakefield St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon, Clare Valley

Description

Wakefield St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon is named after the historic St Andrews property, now owned by Wakefield, which was established in 1892. The St Andrews range was first released in 1999 and is true reflection of the Clare Valley terroir.

Wakefield Wines is located in the heart of the Clare Valley. The company was founded by wine merchant Bill Taylor Senior in 1969 with the purchase of 178 hectares of vineyards near the Wakefield River in Auburn. Bill Taylor carefully chose the site for its red brown loam over limestone soils ( this is known as “terra rossa”) and the cool climate of the Clare valley. In that same year, 1969, the first Cabernet Sauvignon vines were planted. Since 2000 the company has been run by Managing Director and third generation Winemaker Mitchell Taylor, the grandson of Bill Taylor Senior.

Today Wakefield Estate is one of the most highly esteemed cool climate producers in Australia. Almost all of the grapes are sourced from 500 hectares of family-owned vineyards in the winery which makes it one of the largest single estate plantings in Australia. They do source some fruit from trusted growers in other regions, Coonawarra, for example. The family’s home estate and vineyards are situated in South Australia’s beautiful Clare Valley, in the sub-region of Auburn and stretch to another sub-region border, Watervale. As well as the estate range, they also produce the Jaraman and St Andrew’s ranges. 

The first Wakefield St. Andrews wines were released in 1999 and have developed a reputation as benchmark examples of great Clare Valley wine. Wakefield St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon is only released in the finest vintages.

After the harvest the grapes for the Wakefield St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon are transported the short distance to the winery where they were gently de-stemmed to protect the vibrant fruit characters and minimise any maceration and extraction of harsh tannins. The fruit was then transferred to stainless steel tanks where it was left to cold soak on skins for a period of 5 days before being inoculated with a specialist Cabernet Sauvignon yeast strain. Fermentation then ensued at a constant 22 – 25 degrees Celsius and the must was gently mixed twice daily. The wine was allowed a period of extended skin contact before being pressed and transferred to French oak barrels to complete the secondary malolactic fermentation. Once MLF was completed, the wine was racked off lees, fined and then then transferred back to fine-grained French oak barrels (33% new, 60% 2 – 3 year old) for maturation. After a period of 18 months oak maturation and minimal filtration.

Wakefield St Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon is only released in the finest vintages.