2021 Pierro Reserve Cabernet Merlot, Margaret River

The cooler 2021 vintage has contributed to a wine poised with silky refinement, reflecting both the season and the vineyard. It’s about 86% cabernet, with merlot, petit verdot and cabernet franc making up the balance. Over the years, I’ve tasted several of these, and this is one of the most stylish and elegant reserve wines from Pierro. The nose is highly perfumed, and the palate is beautifully restrained with lively red fruits that drive through to a long, thoroughly delightful finish. An excellent wine. Cellar for ten years.

96 points Ray Jordan

The elegance theme continues this vintage, making this dangerously drinkable now, even if it will garner more complexity in time. Enjoy the heady aromas of florals, cedary oak and spice, bay leaves and tobacco with flavours of powdered freeze-dried raspberries, mulberries and milk chocolate studded with mint. Mid-weighted, plush and almost silky and, considering this spends 18 months in oak, 50% new, all that is fully integrated, the powdery tannins caressing and finishing convincingly. Drink 2024 to 2033.

95 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, February 2025

The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Reserve is restrained and elegant, the fruit framed by woodsy spices and cedar notes from the élevage/time spent in oak. The tannins are ultra fine and powdery, and these linger long into the finish. This is very pretty and is more substantial than feels immediately apparent. Drink 2025 to 2036.

94 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, September 2025

Dr Mike Peterkin planted the first vines at Pierro in Willyabrup in 1980, and the property has been one of Margaret River's most celebrated estates ever since. The Reserve Cabernet is the finest selection the vineyard produces, ten barrels chosen from the oldest vines on the property, made only when the vintage warrants the distinction.

The north-facing slopes of the Pierro property, with their gravelly loam soils and proximity to the Willyabrup Brook, are among the most consistently regarded Cabernet sites in the region. Vines of over 30 years, low yielding and grown at high density, produce fruit of natural concentration and structure. Each parcel is hand-picked, chilled and sorted at both bunch and berry level before open fermentation with three daily hand plunges and extended maceration of up to 40 days. Seventy percent new French oak for 18 months.

Deep crimson, the nose shows blackcurrant, red berry and mulberry with spice, cedar and a fine chocolate thread. The palate is medium to full-bodied with smooth, ripe tannins, excellent depth and a long, composed finish.

Elegant and structured, this a wine that will drink beautifully now or kept for a couple of years while it continues its journey in the bottle.

Treat it like a Bordeaux, and enjoy with a roast beef fillet or as part of a Cantonese banquet. Decant for air exposure for up to one hour before serving to appreciate the full expression of the wine.

Drink now through 2031.