Blind Corner Wilyabrup Bernard 2017

Taking its cue from Valpolicella’s Amarone, Gould handpicks his fruit and air-dries the bunches prior to fermentation. This, he finds, not only intensifies the flavours of the fruit, and gives it a more potent edge, but also softens and lengthens the wine’s tannins. The grapes are then foot-crushed, hand-plunged during wild-fermentation, and basket pressed into mature French oak barrels. There the blend matures for 12 months before being bottled without any fining.

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 in 2016.