2018 Howard Park Abercrombie Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River

This is really fine with such polished and manicured fruit and tannins that deliver a thoroughly refined and beautiful palate with sweet dark fruit, from currants to blackberries. Long, long finish. Hard not to drink now. But one for the cellar. Try after 2025.

97 points jamessuckling.com February 2022

This textbook vintage has given birth to an Abercrombie that will go down among the greats. Pinpoint blackcurrant and cassis are laid our on a backdrop of classy French oak (60 percent new) defining a fine-grained tannin profile that beckons a long life in the cellar. World class cabernet.

97 points Tyson Stelzer Wine Business Monthly

The 31st release of Howard Park flagship wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon selected from both the Leston vineyard in Margaret River and the Abercrombie vineyard in Mount Barker, and reflects a desire to offer a complete expression of variety, provenance and vintage from our best sites in these two phenomenal winegrowing regions.Margaret River returns to dominance in the blend with 78% of the wine sourced from block 29 of the Leston vineyard, with the remaining 22% from the 1975 plantings in the Abercrombie vineyard in Mount Barker. The colour is a vivid, deep ruby, tingeing purple and betraying the wine’s youth. The bouquet evolves in a measured fashion as the wine slowly aerates, filling the glass with textbook Cabernet perfume of powerful dark fruits, rubbed bay leaf, cedar, coffee beans and vanilla. Intensity and purity of fruit is the standout feature, and this transmits seamlessly to the palate, where the profound structure and effortless length also take centre stage. The harmony of rich fruit, clean and vibrant acidity and fine, abiding tannins speak to the beguiling nature of this young wine and the glorious future that awaits its patient custodians in ensuing decades. This is true West Australian Cabernet.