Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
This wine's generous cassis flavors reveal an underlying herbal character, like the scent of a coastal forest. The texture is gentle, as smooth as silk, the wine feeling both skinny and round. Completely approachable, delicious to drink as a young Cabernet, this has some peppercorn tension in its tannins that will keep it fresh as it develops in the bottle.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2009 Cabernet Merlot gives pronounced cassis, blackberry and mulberry notes over pencil lead, Provence herbs and black olives. Full bodied with plenty of clean, expressive fruit, it has a medium to firm level of grainy tannins, crisp acid and a long blackberry laced finish. Drinking now, it should cellar to 2016.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Home to some of Australia’s most elegant and long-lived red and white wines, Margaret River is situated in the farthest reaches of Western Australia. Relatively warm and dry, the region is cooled by breezes from the Indian Ocean. Margaret River takes some inspiration from Bordeaux, producing top-quality Cabernet Sauvignons and Bordeaux Blends with firm structure, mouthwatering acidity, balanced alcohol and notes of herbs and spice. For white wines, refreshing blends of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon as well as complex, age-worthy Chardonnays are regional specialties.