Dandelion Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Pride of the Fleurieu 2020 (75cl, 14.5%)

Dandelion Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon Pride of the Fleurieu 2020 is an unfiltered, unfined 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula. It is sourced from the Stranger's Reach Vineyard, overlooking the Finniss River wetlands, where ocean breezes and Lake Alexandrina's cooling influence shape the growing season. Selected bunches were hand-picked, gently crushed into open-top fermenters, left on skins for 14 days, then basket pressed into French oak barriques, 10% new and 90% older, for 18 months. It was bottled with only a dosage of sulfur, with no fining or filtering. The aroma opens with blackcurrant and blueberry, then eucalyptus, dried tobacco, cedar-tinged oak, cigar box, menthol pastille, violet, olive tapenade and sage. The palate is dense and supple, with blackberry, blueberry, plum, spiced cherry, plum preserve, firm structured tannins, a salty herbal crust and chocolaty oak. The finish is long and drying, with grippy tannins, blackcurrant, bramble, eucalyptus and iodine.