RED WINE
Margaret river
Maritime Margaret River is a beautiful mixing pot of nature, surf and wine. It’s a rare place in that it produces some of Australia’s most stylish and prized Chardonnays as well as some of our most elegant and complex Cabernets. On paper it sounds like a lovechild between Bordeaux and Burgundy, but in reality it’s not.
A few hours south of Perth, Margaret River is home to some of Australia’s greatest wineries – Cullen, Vasse Felix, Leeuwin, Moss Wood and Cape Mentelle. In terms of newcomers, we take our hats off to Nocturne, Dormilona and Flametree.
Chardonnay, semillion and sauvignon blanc lead the charge on the white grapes. Oak is favoured in the premium styles which complements a rich core of nectarines, peaches and orchard fruits. For reds, cabernet is the chosen one, and is often blended with merlot, cabernet franc and petit verdot. These red blends personify elegance and ageability.
The wines of Margaret River fly the flag for modern Australian wines, a beautiful balance of fruit and workmanship.
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The Margaret River wine region (some 240km south of Perth) is the most important region, alon with the Great Southern in Western Australia. Its viticultural history began in the nineteenth century on a very small scale when the grandfather of Dr Kevin Cullen, founder of Cullen Wines established vineyards at Bunbury in 1890, though the vineyard site has now been absorbed by Bunburys unban suburbs. Contemporary Margaret river viticulture began in 1967 when Perth cardiologist Tom Cullity - inspired by papers written by John Gladstones from the University of WA which suggested Margaret River was a good place to grow grapes - planted the first commercial vineyard at Vasse Felix. Moss Wood, Cape Mentelle and Cullen soon followed and since then Margaret River has grown to become regarded as one of Australia's, and the world's great wine-producing regions and today there are nearly 5,500 hectares under vine and over 120 wine producers in the region.
Though warm, Margaret River's proximity to the Indian Ocean provides a moderating effect ensuring a temperate dry climate which is often likened to Bordeaux, in part due to the moderating influence of its proximity to the ocean and also due to the marked similarities between the average growing tempreture in Margaret River and Bordeaux in a dry vintage. These warm even growing conditions allow for the cultivation of a number of diverse grape varieties, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc (often blended together) does well here, producing fresh textural white wines best condumed in their youth. However, the real heroes are the world class Chardonnays (headed by Leeuwin Estate and Cullen) and Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet blends, Cullen and Moss Wood, that have done much to propel both the region and it's star performers on the world stage. Vasse Felix, Voyager Estate, Cullen, Moss Wood, Lenton Brae, Pierro, Fraser Gallop and Woodlands are just some of the benchmark producers.
Sources:
The Wine Atlas of Australia, James Halliday
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Fraser Gallop Estate Parterre Cabernet Sauvignon 201986/6/4/3/1% cabernet sauvignon/petit verdot/malbec/merlot/cabernet franc. Reaching heights of near perfection, '18 was a vintage responsible for wines just like this. Supple intensity, concentration of flavour without a gram of weight, the length of flavour possessed only by very healthy, perfectly ripe and balanced grapes. What a gloriously seamless wine, continuing the proud legacy of Parterre. Drink by 2041. (96) ERIN LARKIN, Wine Companion
Sporting a slightly different label now, with the house in a fetching sort of purple. The splash of colour works well. Here we have 86% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot, 4% Malbec, 3% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc all grown on the estate at Wilyabrup.
Blackberry and boysenberry, sage and mint, fetching floral perfume, baking spice and vanilla custard oak. It’s medium-bodied with pleasing density of fruit, plenty of fine grained graphite tannin, cool acidity, so svelte and composed, with a long pencilly finish. Needs a little more time for the oak to integrate, but the feel of it, its balance and shape, mark it out as an excellent wine. (95) GARY WALSH, The Wine Front2014Cabernet SauvignonAustralia432$56.00 As low as $50.40 -
Dormilona Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 2021More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2021Cabernet SauvignonAustralia432$45.00 As low as $40.50 -
Corymbia Cabernet Sauvignon 2021More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2021Cabernet SauvignonAustralia432$68.00 As low as $61.20 -
Cullen Diana Madeline 2021Diana Madeline. The name evokes a lot of emotions, for what the woman stood for then and what the wine stands for now. The 2021 vintage equals 50 years of cabernet sauvignon plantings at Cullen. When released in early 2023, it was on what would have been her 100th birthday. It’s a wine that can come from nowhere else, so strong is its sense of place. Expect to swoon over aromas of roses, violets and mulberries doused in baking spices, a ferruginous quality as much as detailed if persuasive tannins. It’s complex, complete and structured. Gosh, what a wine. What a woman. The perfect combination. (97) JANE FAULKNER, James Halliday2021Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, MerlotAustralia432$180.00 As low as $162.00 -
Hay Shed Hill Block 2BLOCK 2 on the Hay Shed Hill vineyard was planted in 1975 to the Houghton clone of Cabernet Sauvignon. These old dry grown vines have sunk deep roots into the gravelly loam soil profile providing the nutrient basis they need. Block 2 has a steep northern facing aspect maximizing the sunlight interception by the vines providing ideal ripening conditions.
COLOUR: Dense dark red to black colour of great intensity.TASTING NOTES: Ripe berry aromas of great intensity with underlying dusty and earthy characters. There is depth to the nose indicating there are reserves of complex aromas yet to develop. The palate is substantial with intense and fully ripe, fleshy sweet fruit filling the mid palate with great palate extension driven by the ripe and mature tannin. The mouthfeel is robust but the tannins are smooth.CELLARING: This is a strong wine with ripe tannin and strong fruit depth indicating it will benefit from careful cellaring. The expectation is that the wine would benefit from 10 years of maturation. HAY SHED HILL2020Cabernet SauvignonAustralia432Special Price $63.00 Regular Price $74.00 -
Lenton Brae Cabernet Merlot 2021A medium-bodied red with berries, cherries, and currants. Hints of chocolate. Creamy tannins and a medium fruity finish. Drink now. Screw cap. JAMES SUCKLING2021Cabernet MerlotAustralia432$23.00 As low as $20.70 -
Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon 2021Ok what can one say about Xanadu….. I find that wines are always better when made by a winemaker with a particular distinct hairstyle or head of hair, or in Glen’s case, a distinct lack thereof. A modern-day Yul Brynner or possibly winemaking’s Michael Klim Glen’s Cab’s are incredibly, annoyingly, consistently excellent…. Something stupid like nine consecutive trophies at the National Wineshow and a Jimmy Watson thrown in the mix likely reinforces this statement at least a little.
Soo the 2021 Xan Cabernet – fair to say a tricky vintage in Margaret River. It rained and was generally cool and inclement caused plenty of winemakers to lose some hair over picking decisions, but not Glen obviously, having no hair to lose was a distinct advantage at this juncture and this wine is in fact delish.
Brightly coloured, with big lift, smells of blackcurrants, cedar, classy oak, and a touch, but not a touch too much, after dinner mint. The palate is refined and very fine taking after the vintage that was, but surpassing it, with layers of crunchy red fruits and oh so fine perfectly al dente tannins. I kinda feel that this wine is ready and raring to go and a great option to smash on a Tuesday whilst awaiting some more brooding MR vintages such as 18 or 20 to spend a bit of extra time in the Vintec. JULIAN LANGWORTHYSPECIAL VALUE - Year in year out this cabernet delivers... If anything, this is quite tight and needs more time in the cellar, if you can’t wait, decant. It reveals an exuberant fruit profile, given its youth, from mulberries and cassis to blackberries all offset by complex savoury notes, think nori, iodine and tapenade, a flutter of spice, too and a little smoky. It’s fine boned in a way, as it’s just medium-bodied with filigree tannins, neat acidity and a radicchio bitterness to finish. I kept coming back to this wine – it unfurled in the glass but also, a few days later, still impressive. JANE FAULKNER, James Halliday’s Wine Companion
Another fantastic wine that continues the line that winemaker Goodall established some years ago. It is a wine that always delivers so much above its price point. This is a tighter and slightly firmer expression of Margaret River cabernet than the 2020, yet there is plenty of power and drive through an intense and concentrated palate. Perfumed aromas of blackcurrant and bay leaf with a trace of edgy black olive. The structural core provides so much poise to a wine that will cellar exceptionally well. RAY JORDAN, Best of the Best Wine of 2023
I think Margaret River winemakers have it too easy. Every season is perfect, a little rain and they call it tricky… maybe get off your surfboards for a bit and jump on the tractor? #justsaying.
There is plenty of fuel in the tank here, I think if you give it some time this will expand beautifully. Loads of personality and an easy sense to the delivery of a range of fairly sumptuous fruit that is more caressing in nature, the tannins playing to the right tune. They are supportive but also they are noticeable, I want to see some structure in my Cabernet, call me crazy. This isn’t a soft and easy going thing, its bloody delicious, don’t get me wrong, there is a reason I keep going back for another bottle, but there’s a little heft and chew to the wine which lends it a classy, sophisticated edge, a bit of stature and presence.
Look, my job is to convince you to buy Cabernet, so here is my sales pitch. This wine will knock the socks off so many things you buy around this price point, or much more, and it will do so in a cool, calm and collected manner. This wine knows what it’s about, it has swagger to spare and looks the part. Unlike Glenn, this wine scrubs up beautifully and I for one will continue to drink it. I’d love to see a bottle in five years and another in ten. Nice work again, ripping expression of Margs Cab with all the bits in all the right places. ROSCOE2021Cabernet SauvignonAustralia432$45.00 As low as $40.50 -
Juniper Canvas Malbec 2023Could Mark Messenger be Mr Malbec? JANE FAULKNER, James Halliday
He could be if this anything to go buy. Juniper Estate have long been a go-to value proposition and its for 2 very simple reasons; the winemaking is always spot-on and the price is laughable given the quality.
We recently tried the tempranillo along with the malbec and it was a tough, tough decision deciding which to put in here. What we liked about the Malbec was that extra depth, a little more dark fruit and a little more of a serious edge all-round that pushed it just above the tempranillo.
Lovely mulberry and broody black fruit with delicate violet florals and earthy ground spice. Forest fruits all, wild black berry, that spice mulberry again along all wrapped up in a buoyant and bouncy package. Its not simple or one dimensional either with a touch of meaty reduction and savoury, provincial herb-like profile that elevates the fruit and ads some light and dark shade to the wines. What a cracker!
2019Cabernet MerlotAustralia432$27.00 As low as $24.30 -
Nocturne Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2021More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2021Cabernet SauvignonAustralia432$64.00 As low as $57.60 -
Cullen Diana Madeline 2022Deep bright purple-red colour leading into a stylish bouquet of sweet mulberry and other berry fruits, violets and cassis, succulent and mouth-filling, with masses of fine emery-like tannins that run the length of the palate adding authority, structure, length and refreshment to the aftertaste. Concentrated, superripe blackberry, cassis and mulberry flavours; oak tucked discreetly into the background. (98) HUON HOOKE, The Real Review
Really delivers as you might expect from this excellent concentrated and powerfully frame vintage in Margaret River. It’s dominant cabernet with smaller portions of merlot, cabernet franc and malbec. Typical of this wine since switching to biodynamics, it is bright and brilliant with a nervy tense energy to drive the palate. The succulent fruit is harness by fine chalky tannins and neatly played oak of which 55% was new. A wine of extraordinary elegance and poise with a few of many decades. (98) RAY JORDAN
Needless to say, Margaret River enjoyed another superb vintage with the 2022 season. Slightly cooler, Cullen report that it was a vintage of “immense perfume and texture”. The wine is a wonderfully vibrant purple in colour. The nose gives up plums, cassis, spices including nutmeg, chocolate, mocha, bay leaves, cigar box notes – think a freshly opened box of Cohiba Siglo VI – and near perfect oak integration. This is finely balanced and exhibiting immense length on a palate that sees the emergence of aniseed, mulberries and coffee beans. An alluringly supple texture with the silkiest of tannins, though plenty of them – there really is some grip here. This will easily sail through fifteen to twenty years in a good cellar. (98) KEN GARGETT, Wine Pilot
2021Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, MerlotAustralia432$180.00 As low as $162.00 -
Woodlands Matthew Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 Museum ReleaseMore product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!
2012Cabernet BlendsAustralia432$235.00 As low as $211.50 -
Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
One of Australia’s great cabernets. This from a cooler season highlights and accentuates the typical bright red fruits and blue fruit mix, especially on the nose. It’s aromatic and perfumed with an African violet scent. The palate as always is so exquisitely balanced and refined. Since 1989 the cabernet has been augmented with the floral bright fruit of cabernet franc and the darker robust black fruits of petit verdot. The palate delivers with a gentle restraint yet there is power deep within. The chalky tannins define a long and focussed finish. A deceptive medium bodied wine that will cellar for many years. (98) RAY JORDAN
2021Cabernet SauvignonAustralia432
