Collet Lane is Woodstock’s top model in cabernet sauvignon.
The grapes for this single-field wine come from high-altitude Blewitt Springs in McLaren Vale, where the wind not only cools the field, but also naturally keeps the field free of plant diseases. This consequent slow maturation provides good complexity via an extended growing season. Finally, one must not think that we are therefore dealing with a delicate, feminine wine: this is cabernet for full blown with concentration, fullness and delicious tannins from 18 months on oak, 300 liters of ‘hogsheads’.
The wines are made with the help of renowned Ben Glaetzer, who since 1999 has been in charge of the vinification of Woodstock’s table wines, while Scott Collet is in charge of the rest.
No pesticides are used and all pruning is done by hand, which is expensive, but in return can be tasted in the finished wines.
In the scent you get ‘the whole package’ with rock-solid blackcurrant compote, hard-pressed espresso, smoke and vanilla. The taste has great fullness and intensity, where the tannins contribute to the structure of the wine, but without drying out the wine. There is a lot of juiciness here and the field’s low content of nutrients has, via low yields, given the wine both power and length.
Enjoyed with the four-cut meat dish, where it should be good to have a frying surface on the meat. After a thorough oxygenation, this is a wonderful wine already, but there are also many good years along the way left in the wine.
