97 points & Wine of the Week - "Deep, bright youthful purple-red colour with a lovely cassis, mulberry nose of ideally ripened cabernet fruit. The wine is elegant and full-bodied, with richness and flesh, fruit sweetness at the core and plenty of supple, fine-grained, gently persuasive tannins that are perfectly integrated with the fruit. Delicious drinking right now, but surely has many years ahead of it." - Huon Hooke (The Real Review)

96 points - "This is one of the best cabernets yet released from this vineyard. It’s a gracefully presented wine of elegance and poise from the fine chalky tannins through to the energised finish. Blackcurrant and savoury plum notes with a light bay leaf and black olive nuance. The palate is so tightly knit with the fine tannins and fine-grained oak harmonised and defined." - Ray Jordan

96 points - "90/2.5/2.5/2.5/2.5% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/cabernet franc/malbec/petit verdot. For such a youthful cabernet, this is perfectly pitched and composed. A delight to drink now, so I did, all thanks to the neat combo of cassis, mulberries, fresh herbs and oak spices. Nothing out of place. The medium-weighted palate reveals its elegance thanks to fine tannins and a level of detail we come to expect from this producer, and thus not disappointing." - Jane Faulkner (Halliday Wine Companion)

94 points - "Black and blue fruits, cedar and tobacco, baking spices, and there’s something a bit creamy here too, maybe mint chocolate. It’s medium to full-bodied, a good volume of red and black fruits, blueberry pie with custard, but kind of savoury too with black olive and lightly toasted oak. Acidity is balanced, and the tannin offers gentle grip and traction, finishing pretty long. It needs a few more years to come together, but it’s a strong release for this wine." - Gary Walsh (The Wine Front)

Vintage notes
In keeping with our normal practice of explaining our wine styles by focusing on the growing season in which we made them, it’s nice that we can publish a wonderfully simple report for the Ribbon Vale 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2022 Merlot.



Mother Nature was in a very benign frame of mind.



Rainfall for calendar year 2021 was a record-breaking 1440mm, so our unirrigated vineyards had plenty of soil moisture. However, during the flowering period for the Cabernet varieties at Ribbon Vale, 13th November to 20th December, there were only 11 days of rain, which delivered 21mm. At the same time, there were only 5 nights when the temperature dropped below 8°C. Here’s an amusing fact – despite being well into summer, the lowest minimum of 4.3°C occurred on 19th December, by which time flowering was effectively finished.



These types of conditions would normally reward us with higher yields but that’s not how things turned out. Cabernet Sauvignon was down 27% to 4.92t/ha, Cabernet Franc was down 17% to 6.45t/ha, Malbec was down 26% to 3.97t/ha and Petit Verdot was down 56% to 1.16t/ha. Only Merlot managed to fly the flag, producing a yield of 8.04t/ha, 5% above average.



The explanation lies in the temperatures. The Ribbon Vale Cabernet Sauvignon experienced 1078 hours between 18°C and 28°C, so plenty of time in the preferred range for good ripening. However, we also received 118 hours above 33°C, and there were some warm days, especially Boxing Day 2021, when the mercury hit 41.2°C. Toasty warm! That’s the second warmest day we’ve recorded, the hottest being 25th February 1985, when we got to 41.5°C. The warm weather lasted through until mid-February and then eased in the autumn, to the point where Cabernet Sauvignon needed 132 days to reach full ripeness, 6 days longer than average. The point is, despite the mild finish, there was sufficient heat load earlier in the cycle to have a negative effect on the yield.



Overall, we were pleased with how things had gone and we had no problems with fungal disease or bird damage and so the fruit was in excellent condition when harvest began with Merlot on 4th March.

Production Notes
As is always the case, picking was done by hand, then the fruit is delivered to the winery to be destemmed and sorted. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec were transferred to small open tanks and seeded with multiple yeast strains for primary fermentation. Once this was underway each batch was hand plunged 3 times per day and time on skins varied from 13 to 16 days. Temperatures are controlled to a maximum of 32°C.



Merlot is treated slightly differently and placed into closed tanks, where it was chilled to 10°C and allowed to cold soak. After 48 hours, the cooling was turned off and the temperature returned to ambient. Once it had reached 18°C the batches were seeded with multiple yeast strains for primary fermentation and pumped over 3 times per day, with temperatures also controlled to 32°C.



After pressing to stainless steel tanks, each batch underwent malolactic fermentation and was then adjusted with SO2 and racked to barrel. All barrels were 228 litre French oak barriques and in the Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% were new.



In September 2023, all the different batches were racked and blended in stainless steel. The final makeup of the Ribbon Vale Cabernet Sauvignon was 90% of that variety, plus 2.5% each of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec.



The blended wine was then returned to barrel, for the final period of aging, where it stayed until July 2024. In all, it spent 26 months in wood. It was racked to stainless steel and fining trials were prepared but none of the agents improved the wine and so it remain unfined. It was then sterile filtered and bottled on 2nd August, 2024.

Tasting Notes
Colour and condition:

Deep crimson, brick red hue; bright condition.

Nose:

This is dominated by dark fruits - blackberry, mulberry, black currant, and plum, with variations on that theme like blueberry yoghurt, Black Forest cake, dark licorice and jubes. Behind these are the complex notes such as violets, cedar, tobacco, tar and toasty oak.

Palate:

The wine has full body, with intense black fruit flavours of blackberry, mulberry, boysenberry, cassis and dark cherry, plus background notes of black olive, licorice, dark chocolate, vanilla custard, tobacco, cedar and dried spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Tannins and acid are very well balanced, with a presence running through the mid and back palate. Everything is well integrated giving a soft, plush mouthfeel.

Cellaring
Continuing the comparison with 2008, where the Cabernet Sauvignon aligns even more closely, we certainly encourage those with the opportunity to cellar the 2022 Ribbon Vale. It will take at least 10-15 years to develop some bottle bouquet and a further 10-15 years beyond that to complete the process. Beyond 30 years of age, there will be no rapid decline and it should continue to drink well into its 5th decade.