maisonLAPALUS cabernet franc 2017 : this fruit comes from a vineyard near Bendigo , planted in 1972 on poor goldfield alluvial soils  . For the last 2 years it has been abandoned, no pruning , no spray, no irrigation. The vines had a lot of small bunches with berries the size of black currant . The hand picking took a long time , and then the fruit was all destemmed for fermentation in open vat . Light plunging , and on skin between 9 and 18 days . After pressing the wine was matured in french oak barrels for 12 months . Bottling with no filtration and a small addition of sulfur . 12.8% alc./vol.