2022 Dukes Vineyard Magpie Hill Reserve Cabernet, Porongurup

Interestingly this Cabernet is a Barossa clone which contrasts with the Houghton clone in another part of the vineyard. It certainly has created a more robust Cabernet, albeit with the imprint of the cooler climes of the Porongurups. There’s a wild mix of berries evident on the nose with a little oyster shell minerality and light cedar adding another dimension. Drink 2024 to 2036.

95 points Ray Jordan for Wine Pilot, November 2024

The wine spends 17 months in French oak of two sizes, with 51% of that oak being new barrels. This is a poised and refined cabernet, finely tuned with lacy, silty tannins and showing off cassis, salt bush, white pepper, just-ripe plum and minty elements between the bouquet and palate. It's quite refreshing in acidity, if not a little zesty through the finish, though overall the wine finds good balance. It delivers a pleasing, 'luncheon claret' kind of expression that favours early drinkability, freshness, and yet a turn in a cellar wouldn't be untoward. Well done, all up. Drink 2024 to 2035.

93 points Mike Bennie for Halliday Wine Companion, September 2024

The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon Magpie Hill Reserve is understated yet sophisticated, offering seamless layers of just-ripe blackcurrant, fruit pastilles and mulberry aromas with a herbal cranberry lift. A claret feel follows, thanks to its mid-weight palate, fresh acidity and gravelly tannins, with impressive overall elegance a highlight. Drink 2028 to 2036.

92 points Angus Hughson for Vinous, January 2026

Duke's Vineyard was planted in 1999 by founders Duke and Hilde Ranson on a ten-hectare site nestled against the ancient granite of the Porongurup Range in Western Australia's Great Southern — a landscape of towering rock formations and native forest that is as dramatic as it is remote. Experienced winemaker Ben Cane and his partner Sarah Date purchased the property in 2022 and have continued the estate's remarkable standard without missing a beat.

The Porongurups rise abruptly from the surrounding farmland in a series of vast granite outcrops. The visually arresting landscape is viticulturally distinctive, with granitic sandy clay loams draining freely while retaining moisture. The cool climate and diurnal temperature variations extend the growing season and build the mineral tension and precise structure that define wines from this site.

The Magpie Hill Reserve Cabernet is sourced from the crest of the vineyard where shallower soils and a Barossa clone of Cabernet Sauvignon produce small grapes of dark forest berry concentration and refined muscular tannins. Fruit was hand-picked in the cool of the early morning, destemmed and cold-soaked naturally before fermentation with daily pump-overs and post-ferment maceration bringing total time on skins to 21 days. Aged in 100% French oak — 51% new — across 225L barriques and 300L hogsheads for 17 months on fine lees. No fining, minimal filtration.

The 2022 is described by the winery as a vintage of infinite finesse. Dark forest berries of cassis, blackberry and blackcurrant on the nose, with smoked cedar, baking spices, dark chocolate and a thread of black truffle. The palate is refined and complete — juicy red currant and cassis, a mineral core, fine silky tannins and a long, savoury finish of real persistence and elegance.

Serve with roasted veal with a simple herb and caper sauce — the wine's freshness and fine tannins suit the lighter weight of veal beautifully, and the herbal notes in the wine echo the garnish.

Drink now through 2034.