Bowen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Established in 1972 Bowen Estate is located at the southern end of Coonawarra. Comprising three blocks, South, Home and North, this 34 hectare estate has a strong reputation for making wines of tremendous regional definition and character. The wines are now made by father and daughter team Doug and Emma Bowen – both Roseworthy oenology graduates of 1971 and 1996 respectively! The combination of traditional thought and contemporary inquisitiveness has resulted in opulent beautifully balanced wines. The Cabernet Sauvignon is a regional benchmark. Winemaker Doug Bowen says, “Hand pruning restricts crop size to about 2 tonnes/acre which results in full bodied wines with greater depth of colour and longevity”. The Estate fruit is picked at optimum ripeness and when the tannins are “so hard they can break your teeth”. After 6 days of vinification in vinimatics a quarter of the wine is transferred into new French oak and more recently Russian barriques to complete fermentation. This is followed by 20-22 months maturation in new 30% and used French and Russian oak. Emma Bowen – a second generation family wine maker with a strong sense of destiny – believes that 90% of the character is “preset in the vineyard”. Bowen Estate Cabernet Sauvignon has pure blackcurrant pastille fruit, underlying vanillin oak and fine grainy tannins. The alcohol level in some vintages can suggest, however, moderate cellaring potential. The Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Cabernet Franc is a more restrained style but can, particularly in good vintages, deliver more than the sum of its parts, and the Shiraz arguably reflects Coonawarra better than any other in the area, with plenty of ripe, blackcurrant pastille fruit characters and touches of pepper. The palate is typically generous and ripe with plenty of squashy fruit, fine tannins and flavour length. Bowen Estate has been a solid performer for many years although vintage reputation is important. The highly admired ‘one-off’ 1998 Ampelon Shiraz attracts significant interest on the market. A 2006 Ampelon Shiraz is also scheduled for release. Andrew Caillard MW, Langton's