Winemaker Notes
An open and vibrant palate with lovely raspberry, blackcurrant, wood spice and sweet tobacco leaf, leads into a rich volume of fine terracotta tannins that are long, allowing the perfume to extend. Fine acid freshness, beautiful fruit succulence and a dark chocolate finish add to this elegant but powerful wine.
Blend: 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Malbec, 1% Petit Verdot, 1% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Vasse Felix's self-titled middle range often represents the best value for money, in this reviewer's opinion. This is both an excellent example of the range's quality as well as of Margaret River's distinctive Cab style. Layered aromas of tangy redcurrant, raspberry and cranberry are woven with pencil lead, new pavement and tobacco leaf. There's a wonderful lift of crunchy currant fruit on the palate, which counterbalances the big smudgy, savory tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon is both earthy and mineral on the nose, with gravel and petrichor, graphite and iodine, raspberry, nori, layers of pomegranate molasses and black cherry. The wine reveals its 2020 vintage roots via the compact framework of tannin and lush red/purple core of fruit.
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James Suckling
A fine rendition of mid-weighted cabernet, boasting ample fealty to region: plenty of scrub, black olive, bouquet garni and a welcome floral lilt across the gritty finish, a firm carapace of tannin boding well for a mid-term ageing window in a luncheon claret style.
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Wine & Spirits
Sugar plum scents introduce this salty, oceanic cabernet, a good, healthy wine with waves of currant fruit. The savory dark fruit keeps the wine lifted out of its tannins, which provide grip in the end and continue to yield fruit as they last.
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Wine Spectator
Succulent, with fleshy black cherry, blackberry and huckleberry notes that are dense and toothsome, plus accents of Earl Grey, clary sage, fresh loamy earth and generous fresh-cracked black pepper. Reveals a hint of smoked paprika on the finish.
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.