Dark plum in colour with hues of crimson and red rose. Blackcurrant and red liquorice on the nose, with notes of star anise, cinnamon, and toasted almond. A coastal influence gives freshness. In the mouth, sweet juicy plums with crunchy acidity and chewy tannins. Lasting flavours of toffee apple and blueberry on the finish. Lovely. Our Cabernet Franc vines are always the last to be picked, (alongside our Cabernet Sauvignon). For perfect ripeness, they require a longer hang time when the season allows this and patience on our part. We began handpicking the 2018 fruit on the first day of May starting with the grafted portion of the vines (fermented separately with wild yeast), followed the next day with the non-grafted (split into two vessels and inoculated with two different yeast strains). The winemaking approach is clean and precise. Malolactic fermentation was encouraged to start during a hot primary fermentation and finish during a long and warm post-ferment maceration. The wines were then pressed and left to settle before being racked into a mix of French coopered barrels (25% new). The batches were kept separate through two rounds of rack and returning over winter and spring before being put together for a final stretch of maturation through summer. In early autumn the barrels were racked to tank, lightly fined and course filtered before bottling.