2012 Diana Madeline Magnum
Amazing fruit! During this vintage, all of the Cabernet Sauvignon crop was harvested over the full moon fruit days of 7th, 8th and 9th of March. It was an enormous effort to be hand processing this amount of fruit in such a short time, especially in those hot conditions.
It is very unlikely that this planetary line up will happen again at this level of maturity, making the 2012 Diana Madeline possibly a once in a lifetime wine.
After harvest, the grapes were partly crushed and partly whole berry into tank for fermentation. They received pump overs and remained on skins on average for 21 days. The ripeness of the tannins enabled us to leave the wines in contact with the skins for this length of time. After pressing, the wine was put into barriques for 19 months which were a blend of 38% new.
Vintage Notes
The growing season for the 2012 harvest had good rains followed by the hottest January for many years. Yields were classic and we started on January 31 and finished by 11 March 2012. The Cabernet Sauvignon Diana Madeline block was hand harvested with stunning quality on the full moon fruit days of 7 to 9 March. 2012 was a particularly great vintage for our Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. With sensational expression and power of fruit across all varieties.