2022 Gaia Cabernet Sauvignon Clare Valley
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Tasting notes
85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc. Winemaker Jeffrey Grosset. Predominantly hard red rock with thin crust of loam. Vines planted 1986 on own rootstock. 3,200 vines/ha, VSP canopy, contour planted at 560 m, cooler easterly aspect. CW44, LC10 and LC14 clones. ‘ 2022 was for us an idyllic vintage; even, moderate crops of all varieties – similar to 2018 in volume but well above those of 2019, 2020 and 2021, all of which were affected by insufficient rain.’ Reds picked 10 April. Hand-picked, crushed and destemmed, inoculated before cold soak, then temperature-controlled fermentation of 7–10 days plunged four times daily. Malolactic conversion in tank, racked to 225-litre barriques (50% new) for 18 months then 12 months in bottle. Filtered. 580 cases produced. Bright layered crimson. Broad and sweet but maybe not the most focused. A little bit of salt and mineral and not quite enough pleasure? Just a tad austere. (JR)
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Jancis Robinson MW
Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
More reviews and scores
Today, I am tasting the 2021 and 2022 Gaia side by side, and what a pair of wines they make. The two vintages were not dissimilar, in that they were mild and long, and both are excellent; so, it is a privilege to see the results of those seasons here together. Aromatically, the 2022 Gaia is not as giving as the 2021, yet it is in possession of its own register of attributes: graphite and black tea, blackberry, dried mint, gravel and iodine, oyster shell, bitter chocolate and cocoa and tapenade. In the mouth, the wine has that seamless flow of the 2021, albeit with a firmer tannin profile. These are wines of effortless movement and shape, and the tannins in this vintage are almost certainly the highlight; they are pliable, ductile and ultra fine. A superb wine. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.