Xanadu

Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon

• 

  Vintage 2021
  96 points

A fantastic wine that continues the line that Glenn Goodall established some years ago. It is a wine that always delivers so much above its price point. This is a tighter and slightly firmer expression of Margaret River cabernet than the 2020, yet there is plenty of power and drive through an intense and concentrated palate. Perfumes aromas of blackcurrant and bay leaf with a trace of edgy black olive. the structural core provides so much poise to a wine that will cellar exceptionally well.

• 

  Vintage 2021
  95 points

Year in year out this cabernet delivers – even in difficult years such as 2021 (rain events and high humidity during harvest). If anything, this is quite tight and needs more time in the cellar, if you can’t wait, decant. It reveals an exuberant fruit profile, given its youth, from mulberries and cassis to blackberries all offset by complex savoury notes, think nori, iodine and tapenade, a flutter of spice, too and a little smoky. It’s fine boned in a way, as it’s just medium-bodied with filigree tannins, neat acidity and a radicchio bitterness to finish. I kept coming back to this wine – it unfurled in the glass but also, a few days later, still impressive.