Julian Langworthy introduces our Reserve Releases for 2024
I’m thrilled to introduce you to two of my favourite wines yet: the 2023 Reserve Chardonnay and the 2022 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. These wines embody the character of their exceptional vintages and the unique spirit of Deep Woods Estate and Margaret River.
2023 Reserve Chardonnay
Structure. Drive. Complexity. Australia’s Chardonnays stand so tall on the world stage, it’s just lucky for everybody the world hasn’t realised yet.
The 2023 Reserve Chardonnay, like the vintage, is just right - flinty mineral and fine but with great latent power and acid drive. A Chardonnay for the ages and, like the vintage, my favourite Deep Woods Reserve Chardonnay ever.
Chardonnay. Winemakers love it. It feeds our god complex as they are really hard to get right and house style is so important - but when they are right, they are oh so righteous!
Picking date is so crucial - a couple of days either side can completely change the wine style, like, completely! As such I visit these Reserve Chardonnay vineyards basically on an almost daily basis when we are getting close to harvest.
100% hand-picked which is very important, if not ruinously expensive, allows for fruit-chilling and whole-bunch pressing. This direct pressing to barrel and the complexity you get from these different barrel ferments, as every barrel is different, is what really drives the nuance and amazing structure in this wine. Matured largely unsulphured for most of its journey in barrel, the assemblage of the differing barrels is almost as important as the pick date … thankfully you’re tasting wine by this point rather than grapes.
2022 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2022 Reserve Cabernet – it’s a thing. Warmer more expressive vintage that showcases all of the strengths of the Deep Woods Reserve vineyard strengths. The classic dark fruits, bitter cocoa powder and violet high notes are there along with the most silky and accessible tannin profile you could hope for.
Margaret River Cabernet - it’s a thing, the expressive nature of the 2022 vintage is a thing, the extreme quality on offer and age-ability - they are all things…very good things.
Cabernet is made in the vineyard. I’d love to lie and say it is all about goodlooking winemakers but it’s not…It takes very special sites in very special places to make truly great Cabernet, and we are very lucky at Deep Woods to have such an amazing site, in what I see as the greatest sub-region to make Cabernet in Margaret River, which is also the greatest region to make Cabernet in Australia.
When you have a site like this, it’s really about harnessing its attributes and showcasing them in the best possible light, at its heart, really just not messing it up. So, in that vein this wine is very simply made, it’s all about ripeness and purity of fruit tannin harnessed and lengthened by maturation in the finest-grained French oak.
This wine I feel is a perfect example of Deep Woods Reserve Cabernet and one that is very close to my heart. Great drinkability but amazing detail and tannin structure, wines like these I feel are Australia’s greatest vinous gems.
Reserve Release Dinner at Gibney Cottesloe
Join me at our annual Reserve Release Dinner on November 7th at Gibney Cottesloe.
The five-course menu and wine pairings are worth double the ticket price and let's not forget the stunning coast-side venue in Cottesloe. This must be the hottest ticket in town right now, so let’s make it a night to remember!
Gibney Cottesloe
Thursday 7 November
6.30 to 10.30pm
Tickets can be purchase online here: Deep Woods Estate Reserve Release Dinner 2024