Tasting Notes:

Strikingly bright purple in colour, the enticing aromas are evocative of fresh summer pudding.

This vintage is showing excellent ripe red fruits, with a bouquet of redcurrants, raspberries and red plum, while underlying notes of bay leaf and cedar bring a savoury element.

The wine is soft and medium-bodied in the mouth, with a dusty density from tangy grape tannins.

The oak envelopes the abundance of plum and berry fruit in a welcomed creaminess.

Its plush ripeness is offset by the very fresh cut of its tannins and acids, giving it a crisp and buoyant feel.

This wine has a lovely accessibility, its opulent red fruits provide lush, juicy flavours through to the finish, and fragrant blackberry notes.

Vibrant, shapely and a real joy to drink.

The Vines:

This is the third year the Dominique Portet crew have aimed for a juicier, more slurpable style of Fontaine Cabernet.

The 2017 is a more classical and elegant vintage with good rainfall in late spring, yet a relatively late warm summer that lacked the previous year's heat spike.

This allowed the grapes to ripen well, although picked much later than in previous years.

Grapes for the Dominique Portet Fontaine Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 came from a range of vineyards in the northern and southern end of the Yarra Valley.

Soils are rocky and hungry, with a clay base and lots of broken sandstone.

These north-facing sites are excellent for Cabernet that has clear, juicy, concentrated fruit with soft, silky tannins.

The Wine:

Dominique Portet Fontaine Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc, 2% Petit Verdot and 1% Malbec.

The fruit was picked and sorted all varieties by hand and de-stemmed and the grapes were gently crushed before fermenting at relatively cool temperatures to accentuate the beautiful aromatics of the Cabernet.

The wine stayed on skins for two weeks, during which time colour and tannins were gently extracted.

Finally, the wine was placed in barrels for 12 months to mature in French oak barrels, 30% of which were new.