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Joshua Cooper

2021

‘Shay’s Flat’

Cabernet Sauvignon   |   Pyrenees - Australia
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

Josh has a distinct soft spot for the Cabernet wines produced in the 70’s and 80’s by the pioneering wineries of Central and Western Victoria, many of which seem ageless even now. The Shay’s Flat Vineyard is situated on an elevated and picturesque ridge in the heart of the Pyrenees. It’s a distinctively Australian setting with the vineyard surrounded by wheat paddocks, native bushland and scrub. The 20+ year old vines are rooted deep into mineral rich shale, quartz and mudstone soils, growing powerful, yet detailed fruit. Of Josh’s three Cab sites it is generally the second to ripen.

Once hand harvested the fruit was kept intact and partially foot crushed before transferred to open fermenters where it remained for three weeks. The must was allowed to soak until natural fermentation commenced and was then extracted with a combination of pumping over, delestage and pigeage before a gentle basket pressing. Elevage took place in a combination of new Stockinger 300L (30% new) and seasoned thin staved Bordeaux coopered barriques for 12 months, before an additional four months in stainless-steel after assemblage. It was bottled without fining or filtration and just a small addition of sulfur.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
  • Vineyard: Shay's Flat Vineyard - Landsborough Valley
  • Vine Age: 22-years-old
  • Soil Type: Shale, sandstone, quartz, and clay
  • Viticulture: Certified biodynamic
  • Fermentation: Native – stainless-steel fermenters (whole-cluster with some foot crushing)
  • Skin Contact: 3 weeks
  • Aging: 12 months in Stockinger 300L hogshead (30% new) then 4 months in stainless-steel
  • Alcohol: 13%
  • pH: 3.8
  • Total Acidity: 5.5 g/L
  • Total SO2: 60 ppm
  • Total Production: 333 cases

Tasting Note

Deep, dark purple. Reticent on opening, aeration shows intense sour cherry and cassis, mulberry, lavender and black olive with a sweet mint top note and alluring graphite complexity. A compact and palate opens with time to reveal deep dark berry and cherry fruit, before a rumble of fine layered tannin and cleansing acidity with a persistent trial of graphite, dark cocoa and Dutch licorice.

Press & Reviews

The Wine Front

95

"This has energy and sleekness. A firm and tightly wound cabernet of cassis and currants, liquorice, brined black olive and autumnal leaf characters. Flavours and aromas are similar here. Ultra fine, al dente tannins are slippery then build into a lingering, generous pucker. While fruit feels ripe and rich it’s settled into strong, minerally sluices and the wine finishes mouth-watering and grippy at once. This is very good."

- Mike Bennie

The Wine Advocate

95

"Joshua Cooper is a producer whose wines I buy in my spare time and drink when I'm not working. The wines are detailed and interesting, and that's something I really value, along with distinction, specificity, place and identity. So, the 2021 Shay's Flat Cabernet Sauvignon leads with a leafy, cassis-riddled nose, which is brambly and spiced, with lotus leaf/humidor (to quote a friend), star anise, mountain herbs, coal dust, salted licorice, ash/embers and blackberries. In the mouth, the tannins are svelte and streamlined—they shape the fruit but it's an invisible caress—and their finesse is like finely milled powder. While tasting, the rockiness of the place evokes earth and minerals in the mind. The cool part about this wine is its austerity of line and structure: it packs flavour and complexity and freshness into a fine-boned package. It's awesome. Thrilling, actually."

- Erin Larkin

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Producer


Joshua Cooper

Region


Pyrenees

Country


Australia

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