d'Arenberg The Stump Jump Cabernet Merlot Petit Verdot 2017

It is rumoured that the inventor of the Stump Jump plough, which enabled a ploughshare to jump over tree roots, had poor eyesight and required regular tests to ensure he could still operate machinery. The design of this label is inspired by an optometrist's eyechart and serves as a makeshift sobriety test. If you can hold the bottle at arm's length and still read the front label, you can enjoy another glass.

The Stump Jump Cabernet Merlot Petit Verdot 2017 vintage used grapes mostly from very old bush vines, and underwent gentle crushing, traditional open tank fermentation, basket pressing and oak maturation prior to bottling.

A healthy winter and plenty of spring rains set the vines up very well. Bud burst was on time, but very cool for the first part of spring. Shoots grew to 5 or 6 inches long and then stopped for a month. Flowering was quite late, by three weeks, which meant a late start to harvest, and long, slow ripening periods. The summer rains stopped in mid-January, so disease pressure was low. It was very dry from February to April, with only a few millimetres of rain. Days were mild with a lot of cool nights, the first few weeks of April was around two degrees hotter than usual, which help the last bits of fruit to ripen. Overall, a great vintage with minimal disease pressure and above average crop levels.