Blind Corner Wilyabrup Bernard 2017

Qantas Magazine has previously described this wine as, “like Margaret River Cabernet with the volume turned way up”. Ben Gould likes to think his Bernard Cab is more like watching a band live versus hearing them on the radio. Either way, this deep, punchy Cab is made from a single block of Cabernet Sauvignon on Blind Corner's Wilyabrup vineyard, certified organic and biodynamic since 2016. Taking its cue from Valpolicella’s Amarone, Gould handpicks his fruit and air-dries the bunches prior to fermentation. He finds this intensifies the fruit flavours, gives the wine a more potent edge and softens and lengthens the wine’s tannins. The grapes are then foot-crushed and hand-plunged during spontaneous fermentation, then basket pressed to mature French oak barrels. There, the blend matures for 12 months before being bottled without fining.