Jim Barry The Benbournie Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

This huge wine really benefits from a bit of bottle age. It is generous and expressive, with blackcurrants, menthol, plum, rosemary and sage on the nose. Powerful and complex, with chocolate notes and rounded tannins, it is ideal with lamb or beef.

With its beautiful rolling hills, ideal winter rainfall, Mediterranean climate, soil variation and vineyard orientation, Jim Barry's vineyards in the Clare Valley carry a unique history and winemaking heritage.

The Cabernet Sauvignon vines are trained to a permanent single cordon with two bud spurs to promote even canopy growth along the cordon for shading and to avoid clumping or crowding of fruit to reduce disease.

The grapes were hand harvested and sorted in the vineyard to remove any sunburnt or damaged bunches.After crushing and destemming, the must is pumped into small 2 Tonne fermenters with heading down boards which submerge the skinsin the fermenting must. This moderates the temperature of the fermentingskins or 'cap' whilst gently extracting colour, flavour and tannin. Pump overs are conducted twice per day with a rack and return; where the fermenting juice is drained completely away before being pumped back over the skins, occurring each day early in the ferment.Fermentation took 8 days before being pressed, with the pressings returned tyo the free run. After racking off gross yeast lees the wine underwent malo-lactic fermentation in oak barrels.