Frankland Estate Olmo’s Reward Cabernet Franc Merlot is named after Dr Harold Olmo the Californian viticulturalist who first identified the potential of the Frankland River region to produce premium wines.
Dubbed the “Bordeaux from the Bush” it is a blend of traditional Bordeaux varieties in which cabernet franc and merlot are the dominant components with malbec, cabernet sauvignon and petit verdot playing minor supporting roles. Cabernet-franc-merlot dominant blends are popular with producers on the Right Bank in Bordeaux but Frankland Estate is one of the few Australian producers making this style of wine.
James Halliday – Australian Wine Companion
Deep in colour, and serious in intent, the bouquet of this wine is all dark fruits, savoury complexity and some seriously good oak; the texture of the wine is remarkable, showing less of the overt minerality of the other wines, and more silk; fine-grained tannins are the key, ensuring the wine is long-lived and long on the palate; built for those who enjoy structure with their fruit.
Campbell Mattinson – Cabernet Masterclass
“This was a ring-in and served as a stand-alone – it’s mostly cabernet franc and merlot, I believe. Pencils, blueberries, violets. Beautiful aromas. Put it in your mouth and notice immediately how dry it is. Lovely fine tannin and, leading from there, lovely length. Needs time to open and mellow. Impressive wine. Crisp, linear, focussed style”.
Ray Jordan WA Wine Guide
“A blend of merlot and cabernet in largely equal amounts and about nine per cent malbec. Combines power and stylish elegance in a super example of high class Great Southern red wine. The nose is already complex with a savoury fruity spicy mix held with some serious oak, while the palate is cashmere-smooth and very long. Has the framework and depth of fruit to cellar for some years.”
Gary Walsh, The Wine Front
“Yeah! Hurrah for Right Bank Blends. This is Cabernet Franc 62%, Merlot 17%, Malbec 16% with Cabernet Sauvignon the rest %. It needs some time to unfurl but when it does it’s the texture and the fine grained, yet grunty, powdery tannin that gets you in. On offer is a mix of black fruit with flecks of fresh redcurrant, mint and leafy Franc flavours along with some distinguished chocolaty oak. Pretty and serious, only medium weight, but long and impressively structured. A fascinating wine made from a few of my favourite things. ”
Ray Jordan – The West Australian, Fresh, Best Reds
“A blend of merlot and cabernet in largely equal amounts and about nine per cent malbec. Combines power and stylish elegance in a super example of high class Great Southern red wine. The nose is already complex with a savoury fruity spicy mix held with some serious oak, while the palate is cashmere-smooth and very long. Has the framework and depth of fruit to cellar for some years.”
A very refined, beautifully balanced and effortlessly elegant wine with the structure and fruit intensity to richly reward further cellaring.
Cabernet Franc (62%), Merlot (17%), with smaller portions of Malbec (16%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (5%).
All four varieties used in the blend were dry-grown on mature vines in the Isolation Ridge Vineyard at Frankland Estate. The vineyard sits on an undulating northern and eastern facing slope on ancient duplex soils of gravel and loam over a clay sub-soil. It is farmed using organic viticultural practices and this is reflected in the depth and concentration of fruit flavours. The vines are trained on a Scott Henry Trellis system and trimmed to allow maximum sunlight penetration of the canopy during the growing season. This encourages flavour development and promotes balance in the wine.
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