Longview Devil's Elbow Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

Blackcurrant. Capsicum. Cocoa. Plush. Taut. Persistent.
Charred wood smoke, grilled savoury herbs and hints of pipe tobacco aromas abound. This envelops the palate with crunchy red fruit—currant, pie cherry and passionfruit—mingling with wisps of mulberry and blueberry. This is well balanced and delicious from cork pop to last drop. There’s good tension throughout with a welcomed spine of tang and ripe fruit running from stem to stern. Pour alongside meat-laden pizza, grilled snags, aka sausages or supermarket rotisserie chicken. 

Winemaking Notes

A challenging vintage with spring rainfall 40% below average. This helped disease control and provided good conditions for flowering and while yield was down, our healthy canopies were instrumental in protecting the fruit throughout the dry summer. From veraison through to harvest, daytime weather remained warm and dry, producing hallmark Cabernet fruit flavour and ripe tannin, but as always, Longview’s cool nights assisted in slowing down sugar development and maintaining excellent acid retention.
Cabernet in the Hills can be sublime on the right site and at Longview, it is one of our most famed varieties. The oldest vines on our single vineyard, Cabernet Sauvignon is the hero of this unique location, sitting on a near perfect 45° slope facing northward. This allows the fruit (100% Old Reynella clone) to soak up the sun during the warmest part of the day which is uniformly followed by cool sea-breezes at night, ensuring a consistent, extended ripening period. Longview’s soils of shallow, sandy loam soils below ironstone and quartz aids to control vigour and yield – perfect for this temperamental variety. All fruit was hand-picked in late March then destemmed, crush and open fermented on skins for 14 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs in 2nd and 3rd use hogsheads where it remains for 15 months.

In The Spotlight

Bronze Medal – 2014 Australian Small Winemakers Show
Bronze Medal – 2014 Royal Melbourne Wine Show
Silver Medal – 2014 International Wine & Spirit Competition – London
Bronze Medal – 2014 Royal Adelaide Wine Show
Silver Medal – 2014 Decanter Asia Wine Awards