This wine seems to straddle the Old and New Worlds; it's ripe but not excessively so, and there is integrated oak and subtle spice. In the mouth it's smooth and sleek, with a polished texture and flavours of summer pudding rather than just cassis. Despite its 14% alcohol, it is a balanced and restrained wine, and white approachable now, it will put on weight and complexity in the bottle. Restaurant Magazine, Peter Mc Combie. 'This is one of the most elegant reds I've had from Australia, with ripe, perfumed, cassis, but less eucalyptus mint seen in wines of nearby Coonawarra. Decant it and the initial fruit gives way to even more complexity than first promised.' In late 2002 Tapanappa assumed control of the 27 year-old Koppamurra Vineyard in Wrattonbully just north of Coonawarra. The vineyard was renamed as the Whalebone Vineyard. The foliage of the old vines was retrained into a vertical canopy and the crop level was reduced to a meagre 3 tonnes/hectare. The deep-rooted old vines of the Whalebone Vineyard rely on the natural rainfall and the moisture reserves in the marly clay of the Terra Rossa soil and the deep porous limestone upon which it is formed. In the 2003 vintage those reserves were sorely tested as the first four months of the growing season were nearly 20% hotter than the long-term average. Then autumn came early. The critical ripening months of February, March and April were dry, sunny and nearly 20% cooler than average. The fruit ripened with deep colour and the freshness of flavour and acid only conferred by a long cool ripening period. Wrattonbully has an average heat summation for the growing season of 1468 degree C days compared to Coonawarra at 1414 degree C days and Pomerol in Bordeaux at 1447 degree C days. In 2003 the total 7-month growing season heat summation at the Whalebone Vineyard was 1493 degree C days and despite the cool, attenuated finish to the season there was plenty of heat to fully ripen the fruit. The Cabernet Sauvignon (70%) was hand picked at the same time as the Shiraz (20%) and Cabernet Franc (10%) in the second week of April. The average sugar level of the fruit was 24 degree Brix, the p H was 3.55 and the acid 7gpl as tartaric.
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