Each vintage the name of this wine changes to honor a member of the family and 2014 is named after winemaker/owner Stuart and his wife Shelley’s son, Matthew. The ‘premier cru’ Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from the original plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Cabernet Franc found on the south-facing slope of the estate. The soil profile of this slope is sandy loam over gravel and clay. The top of the slope, where the Cabernet Franc is planted, has significantly more gravel in its soil. These four small plots receive the greatest number of sunlight hours on the vineyard, but the east-west orientation of the vines ensures a slow fruit maturation. These are the last batches we harvest each year. 2014 was a warm consistent year producing wines of balance. Unfortunately high winds early in Spring reduced some varieties, but Cabernet Sauvignon survived unscathed. Warm and dry conditions until February perfectly ripened the Cabernet Franc and Malbec, but from March onwards the conditions cooled somewhat, extending out the Cabernet Sauvignon harvest and enabling more flavor development.

This grapes were hand-harvested between mid-to-late March and the the second week of April. After being picked, the fruit was destemmed before passing over the vibrating sorting table, only keeping the most perfect berries. Once sorted and crushed, this wine was fermented in small closed stainless-steel fermenters with ambient yeast. Following fermentation, the Cabernet Sauvignon must remained on skins for another month prior to being pressed for the secondary malolactic fermentation to occur in tank. Afterwards, the wine was racked into new French medium toast barrels to mature. With some topping up and a small sulfur addition out of the way the barrels were selected for this wine and the remaining barrels going into ‘Margaret.’ After 18 months of aging, the wine was racked to tank to settle naturally and lightly sulfured. It was then bottled without fining or filtration