Personalised Henschke Abbotts Prayer Merlot Cabernet 2019 14.5% 750ML

Personalised Henschke Abbotts Prayer Merlot Cabernet 2019 14.5% 750ML

Tasting Notes

Appearance
Garnet with crimson hues.

Aroma
Delightfully fragrant aromas of blueberry, mulberry, cassis and violets are woven together with notes of bay and tea leaf, bramble and briar bush, anise, clove and mace.

Palate
Luscious plum, mulberry and red currant fruits provide depth and richness, balanced by bright acidity and a long finish, textured with fine grained, elegant tannins.

Maturation
Matured in 10% new and 90% seasoned French hogsheads for 18 months prior to blending and bottling.

Vintage notes
After a typical wet and cold Winter, Spring brought particularly mild and unstable weather to Lenswood with fogs, rain and numerous hail events, fortunately with no resulting damage. These cold hail blasts delayed flowering, and due to an early Harvest Moon, the growing season became quite compressed, requiring more work in the vineyard with shoot thinning and foliage lifting. A long, dry mild spell from Christmas to Easter provided ideal ripening conditions; allowing tannins to mature, acids to moderate and depth of flavour to develop. Fruit quality across the board was outstanding, with high natural acidities and excellent varietal character.

Cellaring potential
30+ years from vintage.

Grape variety
57% Merlot and 43% Cabernet Sauvignon from vines that are managed using biodynamic principles.

PH
3.61

Acidity
5.85 g/L

Reviews:

Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion - 94 Pts

58/42% merlot/cabernet sauvignon, matured in French hogsheads (21% new) for 18 months. This vintage celebrates 30 years of the Abbotts Prayer Vineyard in Lenswood. A lifted beauty on the bouquet, resplendent in rose petal, violet, cassis, raspberry, bush mint and anise. Firm and focused on the palate, with an undercurrent of undergrowth, earth and graphite.

Mike Bennie, The Wine Front - 94 Pts

Sumptuous, medium to fuller weight red with lashings of spice, dark berry fruit character, leather and sweet turned earth, a good flourish of twiggy-clove over the top. Sits neat, trim and firm in the palate, very spicy to taste and loaded with dark chocolate powder and inky blackcurrants. Complex, tightly wound and intense, it does a good job of vin de garde styling and wears its fanciness well.