Cabernet arrived in Australia with the James Busby collection of vines in 1832. As a nation we did not begin to embrace table wines till the 1950s and this later set off a red wine boom in the 1960s. Still whether Cabernets were made as table wines from those early years, say 1850 to 1940 is a mystery. Were their significant old plantings in the Clare in 1960? I’m not sure though my early experience of Clare was with Wendouree and in the 1970s I was dumbfounded by those amazing Stanley Leasingham Bin numbered reds. The Bin 49 Cabernet was sensational though after several corporate plays they just disappeared.
The Clare Cabernet taste always was different simply because the climate-weather of the Clare is so odd. The combination of hot and cool, often over a wide range in a short time, is associated with many districts along the Adelaidean Mount Lofty Range yet it is the Clare where something extra happens. Those cool evenings which come from the elevation make Clare Cabernets so appealing.
As for Batch 12A its what is in the glass and this is a tremendous discovery which will excite Glug customers. Part of a Cabernet collection we have recently purchased.