Balnaves
2009 Cabernet of the Year - Penguin Good Wine Guide
2008 Winery of the Year - James Halliday
2006 Qantas/Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year - Peter Bissell
Balnaves is a family owned wine company in the heart of the famous Coonawarra Terra Rossa strip. The initial vineyard plantings commenced in 1975 and have now increased to 47 hectares.
2008 The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon impressed with its depth of flavour and stylish balance. Hooke thought it had "superb concentration and drive on the palate, with blackberry and mint. ItÕs got lots of tannins, but these are very good." The flavours are just beginning to develop more complexity in the bottle, but the wine needs further time to show its best.
2008 Cabernet Sauvignon is showing considerable concentration, with dense dark berries and high tannin extraction.Hooke was again a strong supporter: "Spice and mint Ð very regional Coonawarra. Excellent ripeness, with taut, firm tannins. Needs age!" Through a Glass Darkly, Gourmet Traveller Wine June/July 2010
2007 The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Power and grace; loaded with sweet oak, the quality of fruit beneath is up to the task; layered cassis, redcurrant, cedar and violet bouquet, great concentration of fruit on the palate, with a refreshingly vibrant core of acid and pure fruit; lots of slippery, finegrained tannins that counterpoint the vibrant fruit with ease: wonderfully long and satisfying. 97 pts
Pete Bissell on the 2008 Vintage
We picked most of the reds late in March and early in April at very good ripeness and we have produced intense wines with fantastic colour and ripe flavours but also with ripe tannins. They are not big wines as one might expect in a hot year but medium bodied with good balance and perfume.
In the winery we did a lot of barrel fermentation this year, the reds fermented more slowly than normal and we transferred them into oak at pressing and allowed them to finish in oak at their own rate. We were able to do long macerations 25-30 days on skins with our best vineyards as normal and these wines responded well to the extended time on skins. They are now all pressed and in new oak settling down and doing malo-lactic fermentation. Overall, as they settle down the 2008 vintage wines look to be very very good, lovely ripe perfumed wines with medium body, lovely balance and soft tannins, similar in style perhaps to 2006.
Andrew Caillard MW of Langtons said of Pete Bissell, "... a winemaking magician who belongs to an enlightened movement of winemakers who see Coonawarra as an intricate palette of Regional colour..."
2008 Winery of the Year - James Halliday
2006 Qantas/Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year - Peter Bissell
Balnaves is a family owned wine company in the heart of the famous Coonawarra Terra Rossa strip. The initial vineyard plantings commenced in 1975 and have now increased to 47 hectares.
2008 The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon impressed with its depth of flavour and stylish balance. Hooke thought it had "superb concentration and drive on the palate, with blackberry and mint. ItÕs got lots of tannins, but these are very good." The flavours are just beginning to develop more complexity in the bottle, but the wine needs further time to show its best.
2008 Cabernet Sauvignon is showing considerable concentration, with dense dark berries and high tannin extraction.Hooke was again a strong supporter: "Spice and mint Ð very regional Coonawarra. Excellent ripeness, with taut, firm tannins. Needs age!" Through a Glass Darkly, Gourmet Traveller Wine June/July 2010
2007 The Tally Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Power and grace; loaded with sweet oak, the quality of fruit beneath is up to the task; layered cassis, redcurrant, cedar and violet bouquet, great concentration of fruit on the palate, with a refreshingly vibrant core of acid and pure fruit; lots of slippery, finegrained tannins that counterpoint the vibrant fruit with ease: wonderfully long and satisfying. 97 pts
Pete Bissell on the 2008 Vintage
We picked most of the reds late in March and early in April at very good ripeness and we have produced intense wines with fantastic colour and ripe flavours but also with ripe tannins. They are not big wines as one might expect in a hot year but medium bodied with good balance and perfume.
In the winery we did a lot of barrel fermentation this year, the reds fermented more slowly than normal and we transferred them into oak at pressing and allowed them to finish in oak at their own rate. We were able to do long macerations 25-30 days on skins with our best vineyards as normal and these wines responded well to the extended time on skins. They are now all pressed and in new oak settling down and doing malo-lactic fermentation. Overall, as they settle down the 2008 vintage wines look to be very very good, lovely ripe perfumed wines with medium body, lovely balance and soft tannins, similar in style perhaps to 2006.
Andrew Caillard MW of Langtons said of Pete Bissell, "... a winemaking magician who belongs to an enlightened movement of winemakers who see Coonawarra as an intricate palette of Regional colour..."