Vintage Bell Cabernet Sauvignon

Slow roasted lamb shoulder, sweet potato mash, parsnip chips and orange gremolata.

The ironstone cellars of Wirra Wirra house a history rich in mischief, adventure and dedication to creating great wines. The winery was built in 1894 by an eccentric former state cricketer, who absconded to McLaren Vale after embarrassing his family one too many times. It was re-built in the late 1960's by a visionary who dreamt of returning Wirra Wirra to its former glory. Greg Trott did more than that, he created a legacy of being dedicated to your craft while being equally serious about having fun and enjoying life.

Wirra Wirra sources fruit from a combination of owned vineyards and premium McLaren Vale growers. The blend of individual vineyard and sub-regional characteristics is the key to the resulting style. Blended from a combination of mature McLaren Vale vineyard sites - typically low in vigour, producing modest yields of intense fruit. Soils range from slatey clay loam on the ancient rocks and deep sands over ironstone.

Wine from each block was individually assessed for barrel selection and matured for an average of seventeen months in French Bordeaux barriques prior to blending. New oak consisted of 30% of the blend, the balance matured in a combination of seasoned barriques up to four years of age.

Individual vineyard parcels were picked separately at a point of optimal flavour ripeness and freshness. Each two-tonne open ferment was tasted twice daily to determine the level of hand plunging and maceration required during fermentation. At the required level of tannin and fruit extraction, with a level of texture and complexity that best expressed the individual vineyard/fruit character, ferments were basket pressed. After pressing and a brief settling period in tank, each wine was transferred to a tailored selection of French oak before completing malolactic fermentation. Following MLF, and several times thereafter, the wines were racked and returned. At the end of this program, barrels were selected from the most outstanding vineyard parcels, blended and filtered with a single pass before going to bottle.