Notes from the wild

Aged nose of date and prune, with hints of yellow paper and balsamic vinegar. Palate shows rich fruit flavours of date, plum, raisin, and blackcurrant. Has a soft, broad body, but decent acidity.

Root vegetables, celery, tobacco and interesting fruit density that is very serious and is also great value.

2008 Vintage Notes

Tasting Notes From the Winery:

Colour: A deep ruby red

Aroma: Mulberries, Blackcurrent, Morello Cherry with Chocolate and Cedar notes.

Taste: A luscious and concentrated Cabernet Sauvignon of incredible purity. Once decanted and thus aerated, the Old Vine Cab will deliver an unparalleled natural wine drinking experience with texture and flavour like no other. Aroma carries through to flavour with integrated french oak and bottle age characters. This wine will continue to age for another 3-5 years if cellared.

Background:
The Freehand 2008 Old Vine Cabernet is a dry red table wine. Made from 40 year old vines and barrel aged for 30 months in French Oak Hogsheads and Barriques. Grapes were hand harvested, de-stemmed and transferred to wax lined concrete vats for the majority of fermentation. Here the rising skins are regularly hand plunged and recombined with the fermenting juice. The skins and juice are drained and gently pressed through a hand operated basket press to barrel, lees stirring is employed and malolactic fermentation encouraged. Barrels are checked and topped regularly for 24 months until the wine is bottled without filtration or fining. The wine is aged for a further 5 years in bottle for the wine to soften and complex.

Freehand wines are created using organic/biodynamic grapes; grown with maximum attention, vinified with minimal intervention and no preservatives are added. The vineyard is not certified although the Eastwell family have been practicing organic/biodynamic principles since 2008.