See The Light

A new wave of bright, lower-alcohol reds is a refreshing revelation in summer with a vitality all their own

- Max Allen

“Buoyancy,” says winemaker Tim Bailey. “Red wine with fruit buoyancy. That’s what we’re trying to achieve. And that means picking the grapes a little earlier. Which means lower alcohol.”

Bailey is the winemaker at Leconfield in Coonawarra in South Australia, and the buoyant red he’s talking about is a cabernet sauvignon fermented with a few whole bunches of shiraz and cabernet franc. He made it during the 2017 vintage with his mate Dan Redman of the Redman family of local winemakers. It has been released under their Punch Down Boys label, and unlike almost every other Coonawarra cabernet I can think of – certainly in modern times – it sits at a mere 12 percent alcohol. And it’s deliciously, almost dangerously gluggable.

“As winemakers we’ve always known that, when it’s really young, cabernet can have beautiful aromatics and lovely natural-acidity body,” he says. “We’ve just tried to capture that and share it.”