Happily for us (and hopefully you) Malbec is a variety that for whatever reason seems to do pretty well in Langhorne Creek. Traditionally Malbec has mainly been used as a blending varietal, usually in Cabernet Sauvignon dominant blends, so you have probably drunk more Malbec than you are actually aware of!! John Glaetzer cottoned on to this fairly early on in the piece, and his legendary Wolf Blass Black Label blends nearly always had a good dollop of Langhorne Creek Malbec in them. When using Malbec in blends, the main characteristics that it contributes are colour, soft juicy fruit to the palate & some amazing aromatics. Here at Gipsie Jack, we bottle off small amounts of Malbec each year as a single varietal, to show people how fabulous this variety can be.

Viticulture Notes:

The fruit for this is from a tiny block on a Smart Dyson trellis which optimum sunlight and for full ripening and balance. Promotes full and tannin

Winemaking:

The fruit for this wine was hand-picked, then de-stemmed and crushed to small open top fermenters. The must was allowed to cold for 48 hours, to the retention of fruit flavours prior to the ferment beginning. The wine was then hand plunged 2-3 times daily throughout fermentation to extract colour, flavour and tannins, prior to pressing to seasoned French oak hogsheads. The wine then underwent Malolactic fermentation in this oak, prior to being racked and returned to the same oak for maturation until blending and bottling.

Tasting Notes:

Deep red/purple in colour with a lifted berry/chocolate (think Turkish Delight) character on the nose along with the plum and dark fruit characters. The palate is typical for Malbec, soft and fleshy, with the plum and dark fruit characters present along with some spice and a hint of oak on the back palate. The tannins are plentiful but are ripe and chalky.

Cellaring Designed for drinking now, but will further develop and reward cellaring for 5+ years