| Availability | Available Mid-December 2009 |
| Variety | Cabernet Sauvignon |
| Alcohol | 14% |
| Cellaring | These wines do their important ageing in two stages, first as base wines, maturing in barrel, and then in bottle, in contact with the lees (yeast cells - think Coopers beer). By the time the wine is disgorged and released, it is ready to drink. It will continue to age for some time, gaining more earthy characters and complexity, but it will lose fruit and fizz and most will prefer it within a year or so of purchase. |
If sparkling red can ever be considered a truly serious wine, then this must be as close as it gets. It is rich and complex, full of cassis, cedar and leather with drying tannins. A substantial brick red colour and a persistent frothing bead are an inviting visual welcome.
Cabernet Sauvignon is well suited to sparkling, being tightly structured with good acid and tannin and great colour.
The base was made from 2003 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon wines aged in barrel, bottle fermented and then aged on lees for four years, prior to being disgorged and liqueured with All Saints vintage port in 2009.
The wine is lovely on its own, as an aperitif for a roast turkey dinner or just with nibbles. Enjoy it in the warmer months when the food calls for red but it just seems too hot to open a hefty table wine.
This Limited Release is the last of the line of Sparkling Cabernet wines from All Saints. The vineyard blocks which provided the grapes for these wines were long ago deemed unproductive and hence grubbed out.