2019 Cloudburst, Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River, Australia

Cloudburst

Ultra-low intervention is the philosophy at Cloudburst winery. Located in Australia’s Margaret River region, the wines produced here are a far cry from the “fruit bomb” styles you might expect in this corner of the world. This lush, green region sees plenty of rain and cool breezes from nearby oceans, resulting in wines that have an authentic elegance to them, with wonderfully fresh fruit profiles.

Owner, founder, and winemaker Will Berliner sticks religiously to low-intervention methods with an almost fanatical devotion, believing that this is the best way for his wines to express terroir without compromise. Organic and biodynamic practices are followed here. The team uses homoeopathic preparations such as fish and seaweed emulsions, biodynamic composts, rock dusts, and mulches.

Will considers his whole farm a living, integrated system, with its foundation in these soils. His background in plant biology has influenced this view; he believes this is the best way to encourage the land to shine through in the Cloudburst wines – a triumph.

The Chardonnay is a purist’s dream: only 3,200 bottles are made a year, and flavours of ripe fruit, toast, dried lemon peel, and salted butter explode on the palate. His Cabernet Sauvignon is almost Burgundian in style: fairly powerful but with an elegance that will take you by surprise.

Margaret River

Located on the most south-westerly point of Australia, three hours’ drive south of Perth, the Margaret River region sprang to life during the 1960s and 1970s as a result of Professor Harold Olmo’s and Dr John Gladstone’s research into the region’s viticultural potential. Consequently Vasse Felix was planted in 1967, Moss Wood in 1970 and Cullen in 1971. Since then the plantings have grown exponentially, while the number of wineries has increased six-fold. This explosion of wineries has perhaps been to the detriment of the wine quality.

Bounded to the west by the Indian Ocean and the 90km Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin promontory, the region enjoys a benign if damp maritime climate in which the vines rarely shut down, causing disrupted flowering (exacerbated by strong, westerly sea winds). Over the growing season it’s 16 percent hotter than in Coonawarra and 7% than the Médoc.

The Cape ridge is made up of lateritic clay topsoils over weathered granite and gneiss, giving fruit with a relatively high pH. Cabernet Sauvignon is the most fancied variety,producing a lush, early drinking style, followed by Shiraz, Chardonnay and Sémillon.

Recommended Producers: Cullen, McHenry Hohnen Vintners, Moss Wood, Cape Mentelle and Voyager Estate.

Cabernet Sauvignon

The most famous red wine grape in the world and one of the most widely planted.

It is adaptable to a wide range of soils, although it performs particularly well on well-drained, low-fertile soils. It has small, dusty, black-blue berries with thick skins that produce deeply coloured, full-bodied wines with notable tannins. Its spiritual home is the Médoc and Graves regions of Bordeaux where it thrives on the well-drained gravel-rich soils producing tannic wines with piercing blackcurrant fruits that develop complex cedarwood and cigar box nuances when fully mature.

The grape is widely planted in California where Cabernet Sauvignon based wines are distinguished by their rich mixture of cassis, mint, eucalyptus and vanilla oak. It is planted across Australia and with particular success in Coonawarra where it is suited to the famed Terra Rossa soil. In Italy barrique aged Cabernet Sauvignon is a key component in Super Tuscans such as Tignanello and Sassicaia, either on its own or as part of a blend with Sangiovese.