Lake Breeze Bernoota Shiraz Cabernet, Langhorne Creek

A classically rich blend, voluptuous with juicy notes of cassis, blueberries liquorice and minted chocolate.

Tasting Note

A hugely successful wine on the show system, Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend that Australia celebrates. A rich wine, voluptuous and juicy, with cassis, blueberries, liquorice and fresh black pepper, layered with menthol and eucalyptus notes. A definitive example of this classic blend.

Producer Note

Lake Breeze is located in Langhorne Creek, South Australia, where the Follett family has been farming grapes since the 1880s. The estate is situated on the banks of Lake Alexandrina and the vineyard benefits from the 'lake breeze'. Winemaker Greg Follett was brought up on the farm but left to study winemaking at Roseworthy before heading to make wine in California and France. He returned to his roots and in 1987 started making wine exclusively from the best 30 per cent of his old vine fruit. He rapidly built an enviable reputation for consistently producing outstanding wines and Lake Breeze is now one of the most awarded boutique wineries in Australia.

Vineyard

The average age of the vines is 37 years, with the youngest vines being 24 years old and the oldest are 45 years old. All the vines are on their own rootstocks and the soils are generally alluvial sandy loams with some over a clay base. This dry region, situated at the bottom of the Murray River, is irrigated by a weir floodgate system, and when flooded it has been known for a canoeist to be spotted among the vineyards! The vineyards are surrounded by striking, historically important gum trees that still bear the holes that were once dug out by the Aboriginal Australians to carve into canoes to sail up the river. Perfectly apt for this wine, as 'Bernoota' means "camp among the gum trees".

Winemaking

Fruit selection is paramount with only the best blocks are retained for the Lake Breeze label and only the best rows of these blocks on a lot of occasions. Small open static tanks were used for the fermentation which took place on the skins for seven to 12 days. The wine was then pressed straight to oak barriques to complete fermentation, followed by 15 months maturation in these barrels. A mixture of new and older American and French oak barrels were used. The wine was not fined or filtered, prior to bottling.

Serving Suggestion

Perfect with a Sunday roast followed by a cheese board.

Grape

Shiraz 60%, Cabernet Sauvignon 40%