New Reserve label to honour Coonawarra legend.
Leconfield has long been regarded as one of the great Cabernet Sauvignon producers in Australia. The Sydney Reserve is named after Leconfield’s founder, Sydney Hamilton who, at the age of 76, and a winemaking career spanning nearly 60 years, still yearned to make a classic Australian Cabernet Sauvignon.
Selecting Coonawarra as the region to fulfil his ambitious dream, Sydney began to plant his vineyard and built his winery naming it Leconfield after an English ancestor, Lord Leconfield.
The release of the Sydney Reserve pays homage to Sydney dream……
In his review of the 2012 ‘The Sydney’ Reserve Huon Hooke recalls his first meeting of the great Sydney Hamilton:
“One of the first wine industry ‘legends’ I ever met as a young novice was Sydney Hamilton. Syd had spent his working life in the family wine business, Hamilton’s Ewell Vineyards, but at the age of 75 he was restless and far from ready to retire. Instead, he bought land at Coonawarra, where he hoped to produce an elegant Bordeaux-style red wine and planted a whole new vineyard. He was a man of energy as well as vision and could be seen ploughing his own rows even at an age when many chaps would be watching the cricket in their slippers.’
The key to this wine was the vineyard selection made at harvest. Senior Winemaker Paul Gordon was meticulous in choosing the most consistently ripe grapes from the 30 year old vineyard and fermented the grapes in his favourite small fermenter.”
Leconfield The Sydney Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
96 Points 5 Stars
Deep youthful colour and complex briary bouquet showing ripe cassis fruit and none of the green edges Coonawarra cabernet can display. Liberal but balanced oak. Lively acidity and full-bodied, rich palate with great intensity and complexity of flavour. Tannins are fine and supple. An excellent homage to Sydney Hamilton.
Huon Hooke – the Real Review