Check out the competition page for details!! A 6pack of wine up for grabs every month until the end of the year!

www.foresterestate.com.au/admin/share-and-win-comp/

Featured in the 100 Top New Release Wines in the Gourmet Traveller WINE April/May issue the Forester Estate 2007 Shiraz receives 4 stars and 90 points. Considering the majority of the other wines selected are between $30-$125 we were pretty impressed to see our $20 bottle in amongst the big guns.

“Funky, slightly sulfidic aromas at first, but also spice and smoky barrel characters, with cherry fruit beneath. It’s a medium-bodied shiraz with a smooth, gentle palate and ready drinkability.”

Forester Estate is proud to be sponsoring the Australian Wine Trade Flood Relief Raffle. Tickets are now on sale!! Visit their website for details. www.winefloodrelief.com.au

Forester Estate is proud to be sponsoring The Australian Wine Trade Flood Relief Raffle! Get on board or find out where to buy tickets for all the fantastic prizes on offer at

http://www.clearaboutwine.com.au/wp/index.php/the-australian-wine-trade-flood-relief-raffle/

Forester Estate has picked up another Gold medal this show season with a Gold for the 2008 Cabernet Merlot won at the 2010 Australian Small Winemakers Show.

The 2008 vintage of our Cabernet Merlot is proving to be a standout on the show circuit with a total of 7 medals from 7 shows won.

Along with the Gold Medal, the 2008 Cabernet Merlot has also won;

Silver – 2010 Qantas Wine Show, Mt Barker
Bronze – 2010 International Wine & Spirits Comp
Bronze – 2010 Royal Melbourne Wine Show
Bronze – 2010 Rutherglen Wine Show
Bronze – 2010 Cowra Wine Show
Bronze – 2010 Royal Perth Wine Show

To see what all the fuss is about try a bottle for yourself!

Forester Estate is thrilled to announce a Gold – Best in Class for their 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon at the 2010 International Wine and Spirits Competition in London.

The International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) was founded in
1969 and is the premier competition of its kind in the world. It’s aim is
to promote the quality and excellence of the world’s best wines, spirits and liqueurs. The competition’s high standard is achieved through a rigorous two-stage judging process of professional blind tasting and detailed technical (chemical and microbiological) analysis.

The competition receives entries from over 80 countries worldwide and
has the support of many of the world’s top wine and spirits producers
as they strive to set the international benchmark for quality. The unique combination of detailed technical analysis and specialist judging
panels means that gaining any competition award is an outstanding
achievement and the medals and awards are the most prestigious
honours awarded in the trade, representing the best of the best in the
world of wine and spirits.

Entries are judged in award categories divided by variety, region
and vintage. Provided the minimum score is reached gold, silver and
bronze awards are given in each tasting category. Products with the
highest mark will be awarded “Best in Class” and are retasted for
national and international trophies.

Overall results for the show included a silver medal for the Forester
Estate 2009 Chardonnay and Yelverton 2005 Reserve Cabernet and
also a bronze medal for the 2008 Cabernet Merlot.

Well it is with a smile and a tear that the staff here at Forester Estate farewell our winemaker of nearly 9 years, Michael Langridge. Michael is moving on to pursue other opportunities in the wine industry and we wish him all the best for the future.

Taking over Michael’s position as Winemaker is Todd Payne. Todd is looking forward to making wines from the Margaret River region, having previously worked in Mount Barker, The Great Southern, Nappa Valley, Northern Rhone and most recently Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand.

Working along side owner/director Kevin McKay we are sure Todd will help Forester Estate’s wines continue to go from strength to strength.

For Todd’s full story please see his profile page.

James Halliday has released his 2011 Australian Wine Companion and Forester Estate has been awarded the 5 Star Winery Rating. Only 17.5% of wineries outlined in the book received a 5 star rating and James Halliday describes the requirements of a 5 star winery as follows;
“Outstanding winery capable of producing wines of very high quality, and did so this year. Also will usually have at least two wines rated 94 points or above. ”

Individually our wines were well received scoring the following points;

2007 Yelverton Reserve Cabernet – 96 Points (Not yet released)
2008 Chardonnay – 94 Points
2009 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc – 93 Points
2008 Cabernet Merlot – 93 Points (New Release – buy online now)
2005 Yelverton Reserve Cabernet – 92 Points
2004 Yelverton Reserve Cabernet – 91 Points
2009 Sauvignon Blanc – 90 Points
2008 Home Block Shiraz – 90 Points
2007 Shiraz – 89 Points

To see the reviews in full for each of the wines mentioned above please refer to the individual wine pages.

The following review of the Forester Estate 2005 Yelverton Reserve Cabernet, Margaret River, appeared in The Australian Financial Review in the June 18-20 edition. Written by Tim White.

“Classic Margaret River herbal cassis fruitcake, really minerally deep. This is a classy cabernet sauvignon. Attacks with dark intense currant and fruitcake, with building tannins, but is quite gentle; a lovely sparkly forest berry and currant-loaded palate. Gets better as it sits in the glass and fresh 24 hours after opening. Fine maturing red. You’d pay a couple of hundred for cabernet sauvignon of this quality from Europe.” 96/100.

For inquiries regarding the 2005 Yelverton Reserve Cabernet, please contact the winery directly on (08) 9755 2788 or info@foresterestate.com.au

The evenings have a serious chill of late and the fire place is cranking all night so we must be finished vintage. In actual fact we pressed out our last red on Friday 30th April but we have been pretty busy celebrating and sleeping since then. The last press out was a Merlot which makes a change from the usual finish on Cabernet, however this was no super late ripening Merlot but rather an extended post ferment maceration experiment that has yielded excellent results.

Typically at Forester we have incorporated an extended cold soak of premium red parcels prior to letting a ferment take off rather than holding the dry wine on skins after ferment. Following in the tradition of many great Merlot producers in St Emilion, Bordeaux, the ferment was allowed to finish to absolute dryness in the fermenter before the ‘cap’ of floating skins was submerged and the fermenter sealed to prevent surface oxidation and spoilage. After 2 weeks fermenting and then a further 4 weeks soaking we decided it was time to press out and see what we’d achieved.

All winemakers love a good trial and naturally we also pressed some of the same Merlot from fermenter after the initial 2 weeks so we had a control to compare our long soak with. The extra month on skins has really filled the wine out, with not only extra natural tannin (giving depth and structure) but a finer more sophisticated mouthfeel than the control wine. These two wines will age in identical barrels for at least 18 months so we can continue to assess the quality differences with time. My guess is that the presses at Forester may be finishing their vintage work with Merlot more often than not in future.