2020 Bleasdale Frank Potts Cabernet Blend

The founder, the highly inventive, industrious and resourceful Frank Potts (1815 - 1890), to whom this wine is dedicated, was a 19th century genius, and a pioneer who has been described as being “made of the right stuff and well worthy of the grand old land that gave him birth.” He arrived in Australia as a 21 year old, having set sail from Plymouth England, and landing late in 1836. By the 1860’s, he had planted the original 30 acres of vineyard on the banks of the Bremmer Creek. Potts was highly admired - “One meets with extraordinary characters through life, but I doubt whether his equal could be found. In appearance a stranger would take him to be a poor labourer, with a thin, spare figure and long unkempt hair and invariably wearing his shirt sleeves tucked up. Although a most uncouth-looking person, and yet this man is a perfect genius! There is not a single thing mechanical or otherwise undertaken by him which he does not succeed in...” So remarked Inspector Tolmer, who was later to become Commissioner of Police, South Australia. Frank was one of the first to recognise the benefits of red gum. After building several houses for himself, he made tools and a bullock dray to cut down and haul these massive timbers in order to construct a gigantic twin wine press and several enormous wine vats. He also created the irrigation system that's still in place today. What little spare time he might have had was spent building a piano and various race winning yachts!

Richly fruited yet wonderfully refined, finishing long and eloquent.

A blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Malbec, 7% Petit Verdot and 2% Merlot, with maturation taking place in French oak puncheons and hogsheads (25% new) for a period of 12 months.
Dense black as night dark red in colour with a deep dark red hue. Intense blackcurrant, mulberry and red liquorice scents sail through the olfactory senses followed by some dusty vanillin cedar, tobacco and spicy bay leaf notes. Richly fruited yet refined the mid weighted palate is blessed with red to black currant, plum and red liquorice flavours. Tobacco, spicy cedar and bay leaf characters sit underneath. Fine, polished tannins finishing long and eloquent. Top Gold at the 2022 Sydney Royal Wine Show.
Drink over the next 5-6 years.
Alc. 14%

Other Reviews….
A 76/15/7/2% blend of cabernet sauvignon, malbec, petit verdot and merlot. Bright, near vivid, crimson; an elegant cabernet-driven wine, with notes of cedar, cigar box and cassis on the bouquet and palate alike. It's medium bodied and lithe, an English gentleman's claret. Drink by 2030.
95 points
James Halliday – Australian Wine Companion