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.

“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

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.

“Alicanté Bouschet. Sounds kinda sexy, doesn’t it? Well, it gets a spark out of me. But for the most of it’s life it has been distinctly unsexy; a sort of dowdy plodder grape variety that has been used as a blender and to create light bodied to rose styles.

It’s main claim to fame was probably it’s clandestine role in the prohibition era of the United States when Californian winemakers sent truckloads of the stuff across the country to New York where all manner of dodgy characters pressed it’s pulpy flesh over and over to extract vast amounts of juice from relatively small amounts of grapes to flog it off in the speakeasies.

So you can imagine my surprise when Forester Estate’s Kevin McKay gives me the drum recently that he has made a wine from Alicante Bouschet that he thinks I might be interested in.

Yeah sure Kevin. Alicante bouschet…….from Margaret River……..I think you’ve been out in the sun too long mate.

All I can say now is sorry Kevin. The wine which he simply calls Alicanté is one of the most exciting, groundbreaking wines I have tasted in a long time. A rollicking red wine of wonderful flavours and drinkability. Look, it’s not incredibly complex nor does it have classic red wine structure, but it has flavour in spades. And above all, it’s drinkable…. very drinkable, as I discovered when later that night I had finished the bottle without missing a beat.

Alicanté Bouschet differs from most other varieties in that it’s flesh is also dark whereas in mist grape varieties the flesh is clear and all the colour comes from the skins. As a result the colour for McKay’s Alicanté is inky black with just hints of deep red hues.

In Australia there is a little of the variety grown and most is generally blended into rose styles. The most famous is Robert O’Callaghan’s alicante bouschet rose which has a big following.

McKay said he has been working on the style for a few years, making a small amount in 2007 before finally being happy enough to release a wine from the 2008 vintage. The wine gets used oak but McKay says he will experiment with some new French in the future.”

Pick of the Week
Forester Estate Margaret River Alicanté 2008 ($35 Cellar Door Only)

Something a little different from Margaret River. It’s just a gorgeous soft fleshy drink with supple tannins, subtle oak and deep inky vibrant fruit flavour. If you don’t like this you should take a hike. It’s rustic and earthy and fun with every slurp. 91/100.

Perfect with Spag Bol.

Written by Ray Jordan for The West Australian, West Weekend 10th April 2010.

Having recently released our first ever Forester Alicanté from the 2008 vintage, we were both excited and nervous approaching the harvest of the 2010. The 2008 has received an excellent reception by all who have tried it and we have a sensational 2009 ageing in barrel awaiting bottling later this year so we were keen to capture the best possible fruit in 2010 to carry the quality forward. Check out the shots below showing the amazing colour that bursts from the berries the moment they are crushed.. there is always a long and painstaking cleaning process for the equipment after the Alicanté has passed through!

To find out more about the Alicanté grape and our belief in its future at Forester read the text below drawn from a recent press release;

Alicanté Bouschet is the only member of the Vitis vinifera wine grape family that is also termed a Teinturier (a grape with red colour in its flesh rather than in the skin). This rare trait sets the grape well apart from all other red wine grapes which require long periods of skin contact during ferment to extract the deep red colour we see in the finished product. Alicanté grapes picked straight from the vine burst a vivid scarlet red when crushed and stain just about everything they come into contact with much the same as mulberries do.

Developed by Henri Bouschet in 1866 as a cross of the grape varieties Grenache and Petit Bouschet, Alicanté Bouschet was widely planted in France by the end of the 19th Century. It spread to Spain, Portugal and Italy and then on to California where it was very popular during prohibition due to it’s naturally high yielding tendency, thick skin and deep colour. These traits allowed for big crops to be transported as fresh fruit in good condition long distances by rail to New York, and then permitted dilution of wine with water without substantial loss of aroma or colour.

Alicanté Bouschet has most often been used as blending material to add colour and fruity aroma. Plantings slowed and then reversed in the 20th Century with the variety now extinct in some areas of France however there are examples of quality full bodied varietal wines being produced today in Portugal and California. In Australia the grape has had limited opportunity to express itself across different regions and has commercially only ever been made as a lighter rosē style wine – the Rockford Alicanté Bouchet Rosé from the Barossa is a leading example.

From this history Forester Estate has been experimenting with a small amount of fruit from the Touchwood vineyard, which is to our knowledge the only Alicanté Bouschet planting in the premium Margaret River region. The stable Mediterranean climate of Margaret River with excellent annual rainfall and a long reliable ripening period appears ideal for producing Alicanté grapes that are full of flavour while retaining good natural acidity and importantly good fruit tannin. Where Alicanté has fallen from favour as a varietal it is often described as lacking structure or intensity. In our short experience of three vintages making the wine, we are gaining confidence that we may have found an exciting match between variety and region.

Perhaps most exciting is that in the abnormally warm vintage of 2007 (conditions closer to those experienced in areas where Alicanté has been considered better suited to rosē production) the wine quality was only average and we decided to blend away, while in the more typical years 2008 and 2009 we have seen the fruit rise to a quality that demands serious attention. Moderate ripening conditions without excessive temperature spikes are potentially a key to stabilizing the phenolic components of the grape and delivering lasting structure to the wine.

Prior to bottling the 2008 Alicanté we assessed a range of blending trials and decided to incorporate 5% Cabernet Sauvignon which seemed to just subtly improve the balance and progression of the finished product. As a wine the 2008 Forester Estate Alicanté looks to be a real crowd pleaser; the fragrant, violet-like bouquet perhaps most closely matches Petit Verdot, yet the palate shows no firmness but rather more a plush, ripe Shiraz feel. There is a warmth and generosity to the fruit that is rarely if ever seen in the established red varieties of Margaret River. The wine has an inky depth of colour and bursts out with juicy plum and blueberry fruit, some sweet spice for intrigue, and finally heads into dark chocolate flavours in the back palate. Rigorous scientific trials by the staff at Forester have established that the wine drinks exceptionally well with rustic style pizza featuring grilled meats, roast turkey with cranberry sauce and Venezuelan black chocolate tart.

Forester Estate has embarked on a journey to fully explore the intricacies of Alicanté Bouschet as a grapevine and a wine in Margaret River. Grafting trials are underway at Touchwood to see how the vines perform on the established roots of another variety, while new plantings on own roots are also being pursued to ensure an increase in production is possible in coming years.

We already have one Merlot fermenting away, however there looks like being a nice break before the rest of the reds start reaching maturity.. much the same as we experienced in 2009.

The story of the vintage so far has been the healthy (big!) crop sizes on many of the whites with a number of deliveries far exceeding our expectations. We have also had to manage harvests and fruit handling to reduce the impact of several prolonged hot spells in the last 3 weeks and recent data from the Bureau of Meteorology suggests Busselton had its hottest February on record, with the record for the warmest March overnight minimum also falling this week.

Having said that, our old vine Chardonnay looks powerful and a new parcel of Semillon we have taken on this year is showing remarkable intensity.. good news for the 2010 SSB!

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We expect to be picking Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc within the next two weeks and currently we are training new cellar staff and preparing the winery for the onslaught.

The growing season has been relatively kind so far with a few hot spells in January that advanced the maturity of some varieties and even burnt fruit where growers had stripped too much leaf away from the bunches.

Mostly it has been dry and windy helping keep disease pressure low while the Marri blossom looks set to be strong in February and March helping draw the Silvereyes away from our tasty grapes.

This highly regarded wine show has grown to nearly 2000 entries and is open to Australian and New Zealand wineries producing less than 500 tons for their own label.

After receiving the top Gold medal in the Chardonnay class the wine was pitted against the best whites from all categories and shone through as the leading white wine in the show this year.

The 2007 Chardonnay has now earned multiple Gold, Silver and Bronze medals along with several 5 Star reviews. It is on current release, however stock is flying and we expect it will sell out this autumn.

Yes that’s a tip… get in quick!