2021 Hay Shed Hill Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River

Fifty-year-old Margaret River vines deliver a cabernet with deep colour, classy blackcurrant and bay leaf fruit with neatly handled alcohol, fine tannins and a dab of French oak. The value for money is the cream on the cake, as is the way the wine gets better each time you go back to it. Its juicy cassis fruit is faultless.

96 points Special Value James Halliday winecompanion.com.au

The Hay Shed Hill Vineyard Series wines are made from fruit grown exclusively on the Hay Shed Hill estate. Planted in the early 1970s, the vineyard produces low yields of outstanding fruit from mature, non-irrigated vines. With world best practice winemaking, Hay Shed Hill produces flavoursome wines of great depth that reflect the character and essence of this wonderful site

Dense dark red to black colour of great intensity. An intense and rich bouquet led by the ripest cassis and berry fruits, rich and opulent but brooding in its youth. Behind the primary fruits are distinctive vineyard characteristics of dark chocolate and mint. The oak is background cedar which will recede further as the fruits emerge with some bottle age. This vineyard consistently produces intense fleshy and full mid palate Cabernet with massive fruit weight with dark cherry and blackcurrant flavours. 

At the time of writing the wine is very youthful and tight but it still has ample fruit sweetness that will only become more accessible as the wine matures in bottle. This is a big full wine with ample flavour and concentration in the classic Margaret River tradition.