97 points James Halliday
92 points Huon Hooke
Dear UMAMU family,
We are excited to offer you this Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon from the glorious depths of our wine cellar!
This Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon is produced from parcels planted in 1978 and 1982. Alongside our Shiraz vines planted back in 1978, the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are the oldest parcels on our family vineyard just 10km east of Margaret River in Western Australia.
Read on to find out more about the Margaret River wine region, tips on wine pairing Cabernet Sauvignon wines plus a stunning review from Australian wine guru James Halliday who gave us a gold medal with 97 out of 100 points!
If you would like a combination of our wines that is not listed on our cart or for delivery outside Australia, please contact us on umamu@umamuestate.com.
Cheers!
“Vivid crimson-purple; a cabernet that exemplifies UMAMU: it brings together cassis, quality French oak, and perfect cabernet tannins. Taken together you end up with aromas and flavours as complex as the texture and tannin structure. Right up there with the very best, and a long life ahead.”
Our Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon wines find themselves at the 'medium-plus' end of our in-house wine pairing philosophy.
What does this mean? Well, we like to think of wine and food as existing on a spectrum of light-bodied to light-plus-bodied to medium-bodied to medium-plus-bodied. Makes sense right? (Check the visual aid in the blog if not!)
In plain English, it means that red meats or game, cooked with intensive methods like roasting or stewing or pan-frying – and even a rich cheese-based or butter-based sauce – will be a prime partner for our Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon.
This Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 has been in French oak barrels for 18 months, which gives it enough texture, body and acidity to cut right through heavier dishes. This particular vintage has had a good nine years in the bottle to mellow and balance up.
Why not try out our Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon with Lamb Shank Stew (gluten & dairy free)?
Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are one of the world's most recognisable and best-loved red wine grapes varieties. Bordeaux is one of the most famous wine growing regions in France – producing some of the world's most expensive vintages – and it is the region that brought Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to worldwide attention.
Bordeaux has a temperate, oceanic climate with average rainfall 37 inches (944mm) annually and average annual temperature of 13.8 °C. This is very similar to the Margaret River, which has slightly higher average rainfall of 44 inches (1,120mm) and average annual temperature of 16.4 °C.
Despite the slight differences, Australian wine guru James Halliday wrote in his Australian Wine Encyclopedia:
"Overall the climate is similar (in terms of warmth) to that of Bordeaux in a dry vintage."
This is not a negative. In fact, Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon grapes have a distinct advantage, according to Virginia Willcock from Vasse Felix, the founding winery in Margaret River:
"Most great Cabernet Sauvignon in the world is grown with a maritime influence, close to the sea where you have that breeze. But Margaret River also has a Mediterranean climate where we have that warm dry summer and a beautiful long dry season.
We’re not under pressure to harvest our grapes early because of rain, because of disease, because of rot; all the things that winemakers are under pressure to harvest for.
The beautiful sea breeze is what buys us weeks of ripening. It keeps the berries in tact and means they come in as a perfect round berry without any shrivel, without any issues, so you end up with a beautiful soft tannin ripened until the end of the season where the tannin profile is perfect.”
