Petaluma Yellow Label Coonawarra Cabernet Merlot 2015 (6 x 750mL), SA.

VINTAGE CONDITIONS

It was a wonderful wet and cold winter leading into the growing season. Spring and summer were then relatively dry until a very welcome 25mm of rain fell the first week of January. This much needed rain gave the old vines a ‘shot in the

arm’ to ripen both varieties. The rest of the ripening season was beautifully autumnal - cold nights and warm days. The Merlot was hand-picked in mid-March followed by the hand-picking of Cabernet Sauvignon almost two weeks later at

the end of March.

WINEMAKER NOTES

The same winemaking techniques were carried out on both the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with varieties kept separate until blending. The fruit was destemmed, crushed and chilled to fermenter and cold soaked for four days then

inoculated with our selected yeast strain. A rack and return was performed daily to gently extract colour, tannin and flavour. As the ferment approached sugar dryness 100% malolactic fermentation was undertaken and the wine remained on

skins for approximately two weeks. The wine was then drained off skins and the skins gently pressed, with the resultant wine transferred to new French oak to finish secondary fermentation.

MATURATION

100% French oak, 80% of which is new for 20 months maturation. As with all Petaluma wines a combination of coopers is used. This particular vintage is predominantly from our long term favoured cooper, Dargaud et Jaegle, with smaller contributions from Boutes, Quintessence,Taransaud and Ermitage.