I'm always excited by Chester's wines and this release of The Custodian is sure to please.
The nose is full of berries with clear notes raspberry and blueberry with cherry and plum adding to the mix. With a few swirls the wine opens further to reveal earth and spice notes.
Vibrant and fresh red fruits form a beautiful, luscious fruit core with white pepper and cinnamon spices emerging on the back palate. There is an earthy feel to the wine with grippy, mineral fruit tannins providing a long inish.
The vintage is clearly relected in the wine with ripe fruit characters well balanced with earth notes and layered secondary characters. The wine has the poise and structure to cellar well over the next decade.
Awards and Accolades
Best 20 Red Wines under $20 - Australian Wine Companion 2015
94 Points - James Halliday, Australian Wine Companion "Ah, how much is this wine worth when d'Arenberg has two '12 Single Vineyard grenaches at $103 each? A more difficult question for those single vineyard wines than this, which is a drop-dead bargain, its purple fruit flavours given shape and persistence by fine-grained, savoury/earthy tannins and 9 months in used oak."
From the Winery
A wet summer and winter in set the vines up perfectly for the 2012 vintage. Spring and summer were drier than normal, resulting in lower fruit yields. A small heat burst just prior to veraison assured a solid colour change, small berries and pronounced tannins in the grapes. The red wines from this vintage are black, solid and quite structured, the biggest year for some time; not oily but definitely gutsy.
Small batches of grapes are crushed gently and then transferred to five tonne headed down open fermenters. These batches remain separate until final blending. Foot treading is undertaken two thirds of the way through fermentation. The wine is then basket pressed and transferred to a mixture of new and used French and old American oak barriques to complete fermentation. The barrel ferments are aged on lees, and there is no racking until final blending.
Don't Pay: $25.00
WBW Rating: 94/100
Closure: Stelvin
Region: McLaren Vale, SA
