2022 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River

All class! A beautifully captured regional statement that seamlessly delivers one classy wine. It’s hard to stop at one glass. Lifted aromas in violet, blackberry, cassis with crushed herbs, Aussie bush, pepper notes and background vanillin oak. There’s a complexity on the bouquet delivered just as indelibly on the palate and built around ripe fruit, fine tannins, a fleshy and smooth textural drive and some pretty smart and sophisticated oak treatment. Boasts a fine elegance that is also structurally firm. A lovely wine now, a better wine later. Drink to 2042.

96 points Jeni Port for Wine Pilot, June 2025

The immediate and lasting impression – this needs more time to amalgamate. Yes, varietal flavours at play, the mulberries and cassis, licorice and nori, with lashings of cedary, toasty oak, which just sits atop at the moment. Plentiful gritty and grippy tannins yet an appealing sweet-fruited flavour across the fuller-bodied palate, a little bitter green walnut to close. Come back to this in another year. You’ll be better rewarded. Drink to 2037.

90 points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, April 2025

The nose is a deep dive into blackcurrant, backed by layers of bay leaf, dark chocolate and coffee grinds. The fruit plushness is undeniable, but it is held by articulated, sleek tannins, and the long, savory finish is wrapped in nori like salinity.

While a good Cabernet can be attractive already on release, it is far more likely to be a reward for those with a little bit of patience. Give the wine generous time in a decanter or in glasses if opening earlier than five years from the vintage. Enjoy with slow-braised beef cheeks in a red wine and cocoa reduction.

More about this wine

The 2022 season had the coldest and wettest start a growing season in over five decades. This slowed down vine development, but warm summer temperatures and multiple heat waves accelerated fruit development, with ideal dry conditions over the harvest period.

Destemmed batches of fruit were lightly crushed and fermented in a combination of concrete, stainless steel and wooden fermenters with select yeasts. Extraction was gentle and maceration periods reached up to 28 days. The pressed parcels were assembled six months after the harvest separate. The major portion of the blend was assembled within six months of harvest and matured in for 14 months with limited racking in French oak  of which 30% was new.

The final blend is 96% cabernet sauvignon, with small inclusions of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Merlot. The wine is unfined and lightly filtered.

About Cape Mentelle

Cape Mentelle is a Margaret River pioneer established in 1970 by brothers David, Giles and Mark Hohnen with the planting of what is now known as the Walcliffe Vineyard. The original 16 hectares of vines has over the years grown to 116 hectares, with a global export market for the well-regarded wines.

New Zealand born Annabel Angland leads the work in the vineyards, while Margaret River local David Moulton keeps things organised at the winery.