Seven Sensational Cabernets

 

From 30 cabernets from predominantly Western Australia (17 from Margaret River, 12 from the Great Southern, 1 from Barossa Valley) I’ve narrowed this list down to a top 7 only.  A wide variation of styes, these are all delicious and well constructued in their own rights, my personal preference leaning toward fruit purity, engaging spice complexity and balanced/judicious oak usage.

2017 Windows Estate Petit Lot Basket Pressed Cabernet Sauvignon, MR

97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot

I have loved this wine in the past and loved it again here.  There is a ‘traditional cabernet’ charcater tucked away on the mid-palate, it takes me back to the cabernets I cut my teeth on – I guess expressed in the sprinkling of sage/bay leaf.

‘Incredible nose.  Saturated red berries, bucketloads of exotic spice, wrapped around a core of creamy, black fruit.  The palate is plush and the tannins are fine and gravelly at once… everything feels very well padded.  Fruit intensity is a real plus.  Very good length.’

95/100

Buy it here

2017 Passel Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, MR

From the cooler longer 2017 vintage, this wine again, as with the wine above, shows the elegance and finesse endemic to a cooler year.

Strawberries, raspberries, red licorice, lashings of sweet baking spice and good acidity that curves around the back of the fruit.  Tannins are resinous somehow… tarry.  This is almost old school – herbal bay leaf, hints of sage, firm structuring tannins.  Elegant and fine.  The finish is something to note here…. Very restrained and consistent.

Winemaker: Bruce Dukes

95+/100

Buy the 2016 here

2015 Poacher’s Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon Great Southern

‘Oooof.  Something fine, spiced, modern and exciting. The palate shows good length and a not-insubstantial whack of juniper berry, cassis, raspberry, bramble and pepper.   Lovely, sumptuous red fruit mid palate through finish.  Medium bodied.  Atpical/unusual wine in this lineup.’

Winemaker: Rob Diletti

95/100

Buy it here

2017 Castelli Cabernet Sauvignon, Frankland River

Twice in two weeks this winery has brought the goods in these tastings – last week it was the chardonnays.

‘Wow.  Power and intensity are married in this glass.  A strong display of fruit/oak/acidity… the texture is totally integrated and sure.  This is extractive and cohesive and impressive.  Pomegranate, raspberry, cassis, blackberry, MULBERRY… great length.’

Winemaker: Mike Garland

96/100

Buy it here

2018 Dukes Magpie Hill Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Porongurup

(98pts from JH in the 2021 Wine Companion, retails at $35!)

The oak is on centre stage (35% new French), although the fruit weight behind it is significant. Ripe. Saturating. Concentrated.  Cassis and raspberry mingle with mulberry and there is a creaminess here too…

Look:  It’s gonna be a yes from me.

Winemaker: Rob Diletti

96/100

Buy it here

2019 Walsh & Sons Roi Cabernet Sauvignon, MR

Sealed under cork.

A new label for this wine – more serious but still true to form.  I like it.  I preferred this vintage expression to the 2018 which was also in the lineup.  I found that to be a big surprise from left-field, given my feelings on the 2018 vintage.

Concentrated, dark, intense, serious oak but serious fruit, too.

95/100

Buy the 2018 here

2017 Howard Park Scotsdale Cabernet Sauvignon, Great Southern

A new and improved label for this wine, but the same quality within.

Red berry fruit on the nose – a lighter/finer expression of cabernet, the oak having a much more subtle impact on the wine.  Tannins are fine and the length of flavour is long.

95+/100

Buy the 2016 here