Wantirna Estate 'Ameiia' Cabernet Merlot 2023

6 bottles - that's our allocation for the 2023 vintage!

A large proportion of the grapes for this wine come from the original 1963 plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc vines. The remainder is from the more recently planted—1989—Petit Verdot. Whilst the proportions differ every year, depending on fruit set and cropping levels, roughly speaking,the breakdown is as follows: 65% Cabernet sauvignon, 30% Cabernet franc and Merlot, and 5% Petit Verdot. The addition of Petit Verdot grapes in the 1990s gave the wine a backbone of tannin and natural acidity. With its long growing season, Petit Verdot grapes are the last to be harvested, usually in mid-April.

"Reg Egan, who established this haven on the fringe of the Yarra Valley back in 1963, is pushing 94 and still drives a tractor and tends the vines a couple of days a week. He thought suburbia would swallow up the vineyard decades ago, and it would’ve, but for the Green Wedge policy of the 1970s. As the cacophony of modernity encroaches ever closer, Wantirna Estate remains its own Eden. So much has changed, but these old vines still eke out their exquisite quartet of wines.
 
“This place is ideal for making wine, because of the soil, because of the clay underneath, because, although it’s getting a bit hotter, it’s still relatively cool,” Reg told us last month as he cast an eye over the gnarled trunks and their incipient shoots. “It’s a lovely place to make wine.” Cellarhand

"Cabernet as drawn by MC Escher, exquisitely etched, scrawling volumes into the tiny details. Mulberry and cassis, fennel seed and bay leaf, violets pressed between dusty tissue paper. A diaphanous sheath of fruit deftly draped over a compact and composed framework. Lovely fine acid line and microfine tannins that sit effortlessly in the wine." 97pts | Nick Ryan | The Australian 

"A 45/45/10% cabernet sauvignon/merlot and cabernet franc/petit verdot blend with the majority coming off the original dry-grown 1963 plantings. A fabulous, bright crimson/purple. A touch riper and richer than the '22. There's a sumptuous core of dark fruits, violets, cedar and fresh pencil shavings on the nose. It's just as enticing on the perfectly pitched, medium bodied, elegant and very persistent palate. Everything is in place for a long and productive life!" 97pts | Philip Rich | Halliday Wine Companion