Amietta Angels' Share
Introduced to our range from the 2004 vintage, the Angels’ Share is a blend of our premium red varieties that has it’s origins in our practise of using premium quality bottled wine to top up our barrels. When red wines are maturing in oak barrels, wine slowly evaporates through the barrel staves. The traditional explanation is that Angels have been drinking the wine, hence the wine lost from barrels is known as The Angels’ Share. Whether one prefers the scientific or the romantic explanation, the space left in the barrel must be continually topped up, in order to prevent an air-gap and wine spoilage. Each year we have bottled a special blend of our best wines to use for topping up the barrels, which has always been a wine we love to drink ourselves. Since the 2004 vintage, we have been sharing this wine with the public.
2005 Angels’ Share Cabernet-Shiraz
The 2005 wine combines the elegant structure and tannins of Cabernet Sauvignon (45%), the blackcurrent, violets and briar notes of Carmenère* (5%), the red berry/floral notes of Cabernet Franc (10%) with intense, complex Shiraz (40%). It has rich aromas of spicy fruit-cake, briar rose, red berry, aniseed and tobacco-leaf. A medium-bodied (13.3% alcohol) finely-balanced wine, it is drinking beautifully now, and will continue to mature over the next 10 years.
Mailing list member Lindy Burwood says "the 2005 Angels' Share really is the most gorgeous wine ... my husband Glen always wants us to open a second bottle - even when it's just the two of us for a midweek meal!"
Cost: $27 per bottle. Buy Wine
* Carmenère is a 'lost' Bordeaux/Medoc grape variety which is part of the Cabernet family of grapes (along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot). The name comes from Carmin (meaning Crimson in French) which describes the brilliant crimson colour of the late autumn foliage just prior to leaf-fall. As a wine, Carmenère is like a very floral, full bodied and rather tannic version Merlot. Amietta was the first vineyard (apart from the propagating nursery) to plant the variety in Australia. For more further discussion on Amietta Carmenère, go to our Diary page (Sept. '07).