2023 Forest Hill Block 5 Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Barker

I’ve been waiting for this wine to emerge from the shadows of the cellar. This is a great vintage, and the result is one of the best wines, if not the best, yet from Forest Hill. This is a single dry-grown bock planted in 1975. This is cabernet in its most beautiful, structured and dominant form. Light leaf over blackcurrant with a black olive and minerally oyster shell layer. The palate is sublimely integrated, featuring a firm yet linear and fine tannin thread, complemented by perfectly weighted oak. A gem. Drink to 2043.

98 points Ray Jordan, Wine Review 2026

There's a haunting beauty to this wine. Pure dark cherry, cassis with violet florals, understated light minty notes, dashes of white pepper, clove, a bit of turned earth and tobacco here, too. The wine is so very compact, tannins so very fine and high quality, the length of the wine exceptional, persistent in faint grip, spice, earth and blue/black fruit characters. The compact nature of the wine coupled to its refreshment factor is just outstanding. Unreal. Drink to 2038.

96 points (Special Value) Mike Bennie for Halliday Wine Companion, February 2025

The Forest Hill Block 5 is one of the most underrated Cabernet Sauvignons in Australia. Each vintage I cannot believe that this isn’t a sold-out wine soon after release. It should be, though perhaps this is also a sign of Cabernet’s wavering appeal as a variety at the moment. Yields are low due to the dry-grown, gnarly old vines (1975 planting) in this vineyard. Just 25% new oak lets the fruit speak with clarity, though this is young and still snuggled in tight. Purple and juicy red fruits, hibiscus flower, dark choc toast, and saltbush follow through to fine and multitudinous silty tannins. Acidity glows and shimmers on the horizon like sunrise. Make no mistake – we aren’t talking about the brash blush of a fiery sunset. This has fantastic persistence with a savoury, dried eucalypt finish and length in the earthen spectrum. Terracotta dust, salted liquorice, black plum, concentrated red Xmas spice, violets and crushed slate…there’s so much. A portrait of Cabernet, albeit with a slightly wild beauty. An embrace of a wine that glides over the palate. If you must, decant and drink now, though hold it a little longer before opening if you can. Drink to 2040 and beyond.

96 points Cassandra Charlick for Wine Pilot, July 2025

The 2023 Block 5 Cabernet Sauvignon is perfumed and high-toned, floral and very pretty, with raspberry seed and rose, pomegranate and black cherry. It is superb. The tannins that flow beneath the river of fruit flavors are ferruginous and fine. This is a really impressive wine. It was the winner for a second year in a row of the James Halliday Chardonnay and Cabernet Challenge, a national competition in Australia. Drink to 2043.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate

More about this wine

The 2023 Great Southern season was the opposite of the challenging conditions experienced on the east coast, with Mount Barker enjoying a near-perfect, long and temperate season.

The 2023 vintage of Block 5 is a blend of its namesake block, as well as the 6 and 7. All of these were planted in 1975 with the now legendary Houghton clone of Cabernet Sauvignon, and like the rest of Forest Hill Vineyard, are dry grown and farmed with sustainable, organic methods, even if certification has not been sought.

The fruit was hand-picked from select small sections of the old vine blocks, hand sorted at the winery and destemmed into a mixture of small, open and closed fermenters made from stainless steel, concrete and oak. The grapes were cold soaked for several days before primary fermentation, and hand plunged on taste. The pressed wine matured for 12 months in French oak hogsheads of which a quarter were new.

About Forest Hill

Forest Hill Vineyard is a family-owned business established in 1965 by Betty and Tony Pearse with guidance from the WA Department of Agricultural. It was the first commercial vineyard to planted in the Great Southern, laying foundations for a region that is today widely recognised for wines of elegance and purity. The current owners have been custodians of the historic property since 1996.

Located in the subregion of Mount Barker, the vineyard sits at 220m to 240m altitude approximately 40km from the coast. This part of the Great Southern enjoys long, temperate growing seasons with significant diurnal temperature variations, and sits at the northern edge of the Nornalup geological complex, a mix of ancient rock types that over time have weathered into deep laterite blankets, leaving ironstone gravel as the dominant soil type across the vineyard. Clay content varies from one block to another, alongside differing concentrations of gravel and loam.

Many of the original dry-grown vines planted in the 1960s continue to thrive today and remain the foundation of the wines produced. New vines are propagated from this heritage and complimented by more recent clonal material. The property is farmed with organic principals and with practical aspects of regenerative farming such as incorporation of grazing livestock, multi-species cover crops and mulch/compost applications: happy vines make good wines.