SHIPPING COMMENCING MID-JULY 2026
 
Following its sale to property developers, it's with tremendous sadness that this will almost certainly be our final vintage of wine made from Balgownie, a site rich with significance to the industry as a whole, and to us on a personal level. We trust this final release will be a fitting celebration of this special vineyard and everything it has represented over the last six decades.
 
Balgownie Vineyard is a name that should need no introduction to lovers of Victorian wine. An icon of the 70s and 80s, it has produced some of the most remarkable mature Australian wines I have had the pleasure of drinking. Indeed, my cellar is well stocked with them thanks to 10+ years of collecting. 
 
Established in 1969 at 200m ASL near the banks of Myers Creek in Maiden Gully on Ordovician shale, quartz and ironstone rubble, thanks to winemaker Tony Winspear it has supplied us a small amount of old vine Cabernet Sauvignon from some of the earliest plantings from 1970.  These old vines and special place deliver fruit of extreme concentration and complexity. 
 
Once hand-harvested, the fruit was entirely de-stemmed, then partially foot crushed before transfer to open fermenters where it remained for three weeks. The must was allowed to soak until natural fermentation commenced and was then extracted with a combination pumping over, delestage and pigage before basket pressing. 
 
Elevage took place in a combination of new Stockinger 300L (30%) and seasoned thin staved Bordeaux coopered barriques for 12 months, before four months in stainless steal after assemblage.
 
Deep, inky garnet. A wine which immediately makes one sit up and focus. An extra layer of depth and structure this year, yet still refined and complex with graphite, sweet cassis, cedar spice, violet and rose, air reveals infinite nuance and detail and a briny, nori like complexity. The palate is flooded with fine emery tannnins and wave upon wave of dark Cabernet fruit, finishing with coal, sweet violet and cassis, and a wave of perfume. 
 
The most age-worthy vintage yet for us from this wonderful site and a wine that displays my most prized characteristics - effortless complexity and power without weight. Please decant well prior to drinking, or cellar for as long as you like. 

A high note to go out on.
 
13.5% Alcohol - 375 Dozen Produced
 
-
 
PAST REVIEWS
 
"It took a long time to put words down to properly express how exceptional this is, as it’s a wine of beauty, power and consideration. It’s perfectly formed with heady aromas of dark fruit, cassis, currants and cedary oak (not much, just a seasoning) and violets with the usual menthol (again not much). The mid-weighted palate is ultra-refined and layered with flavour, detail and richness, but all curtailed by fine acidity and the most exquisite tannins. The end result? Impeccable balance. Its youthful charm means this is drinking well today but, as Josh Cooper knows, this will last quite some distance." - Jane Faulkner, Wine Companion (97+ Points)
 
 
"This shows real old-school charm with polish and depth of character, recalling the classic days of cabernet. Aromas of black-fruits, spice, cedar, damson plums, black ink, tobacco leaves, graphite, and a ferrous earth, with a floral touch.  The palate is mid-weighted, firmly framed yet ethereal in feel, with mineral tension and purity. Drinks like an old-school Bordeaux with a fine textural touch." - Ryan Montgomery, JamesSuckling.com (97 Points)
 
"This wine puts me in mind of the great cabernets of Australia. It has a distinct minty, eucalyptus character but it fits with the cassis, dark cherry, white pepper, old cigar box, a curious volcanic ash note and red capsicum characters that meld around that. Distinctly minerally too, a cool, almost mineral water meets river pebble feel to this wine. Tightly wound, fine, sleek tannins lending a freshness and succulence that delivers comments like ‘outstanding tannin profile’ and similar. A medium weight and cool feeling wine, compact and energetic. This is ridiculously good red wine, complex, layered, nuanced, understated and just gorgeous and delicious to drink now; with an immense future. Lay on the superlatives. One of the best young cabernets I’ve seen from Australia, to stutter." - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front (96+ Points)
 
“… The palate is searingly intense and firmly structured, the tannins enveloping the entire mouth … this is so, so Australian and so seriously full of character.” - Huon Hooke, The Real Review (96 Points)