This year’s releases – the 2002 Devil’s Lair Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2003 Devil’s Lair Chardonnay. 

It’s hard to believe it was only a year ago that I wrote to you about the two new releases from Devil’s Lair – and here I am again, writing about this year’s releases – the 2002 Devil’s Lair Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2003 Devil’s Lair Chardonnay. 

By spending a few years in one place as I have, you can slowly start to build a knowledge of the vineyards and what they can do. Mother Nature will always throw in a wild card, but I am sure that it is not pure coincidence that the best vineyards perform best in any vintage, good or bad. It doesn’t take too much intuition to be able to focus on which blocks are the best, and which will require additional work to make the grade.

We have been fine tuning our vineyard management to deliver the best from each individual block and the two wines I’m enclosing here represent the pinnacle of the production, from both the Devil's Lair vineyard and winery. They are 100% estate grown and represent the Devil’s Lair site - and the vintage - absolutely faithfully.

2002 Vintage

The classic 2001 season was always going to be a hard act to follow. As it turned out, 2002 was a cooler year, delivering succulent sweet fruit and wines that are very drinkable. Cooler years frequently require more work in the vineyard particularly with reds (shoot thinning, more bunch exposure, removal of green bunches and very close attention to crop loads), to ensure the fruit fully ripens. The results are ripe flavours, and for reds, refined tannins. These wines from the cooler years rarely have the focus and intensity of the wines from the classic vintages, but are usually more succulent and more open when young. This is certainly the case with the 2002 Devil’s Lair Margaret River wines. 

2002 Devil’s Lair Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon

This wine is not as profound as the 01, but is a beautiful wine that is already open and approachable. The bouquet shows a strong, sweet fruit core that is classically Margaret River – dark berries, some cassis, subtle dusty oak, some delicate floral lift and just a hint of really expensive Italian leather shoes. 

The palate is concentrated and silky, but still with ample supporting and defining tannins - definitively Devil’s Lair. This is probably the red I will be drinking tonight.

Download the 2002 Devil’s Lair Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon Tasting Note.

2003 Devil’s Lair Margaret River Chardonnay

Coming off the extraordinary low yields of 02 and the subsequent intense fruit focus of that wine, the 2003 Devil’s Lair Chardonnay returns more to its typical style. The vintage was warm and moderate with no early rains (but certainly some late) so no problems with fruit quality for the whites. Crops averaged 5-6 t/ha and delivered wines with length and finesse.

The usual winemaking palette has been used (hand picking, whole fruit pressing, juice solids, variety of yeasts including wild, new and older French oak, battonage, mlf etc) with the prime goal of building a restrained wine with persistence of flavour and palate texture.

The resultant wine is the fluid subtle amalgam of flavours expected from the Devil’s Lair Chardonnay. Not in your face, or the most powerful wine from the region, but a wine with restraint, finesse, complexity and texture.

Download the 2003 Devil’s Lair Margaret River Chardonnay Tasting Note.

An overriding factor of both these wines, and a key focus of my winemaking these days, is to allow the wines to express themselves, including the subtleties of the sites and vintage, and to craft wines of restraint and style, and above all make the wines interesting.

Try them yourself and see if you agree.

Cheers,
Stuart Pym