The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon springs from a most glorious season in Western Australia (WA), and in particular, Margaret River. I judged at eight wine shows last season, six of which had classes of wines from Western Australia in 2023. It is my estimation that 2023 was a vintage that extracted the very best from every variety in every region in WA, and some of those classes—the Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon classes at the Margaret River wine show, for example—numbered among the most pleasurable classes of wines that I have ever judged in over 50 wine shows.
So, to this wine. It's is aromatic and leafy and layered with cassis, flaked milk chocolate, cracked peppercorns, nori sheets and mulberry. This has everything aromatically, but it is in the mouth where the tannins steal the show. This is elegant, finely milled, soft in its way—pliable and ductile, not "soft"—and so long through the finish. It's a remarkable wine, made all the more remarkable by its élevage in a large-format old oak vat (1,600 liters), which allows the fruit and the natural tannins to really shine. It is 100% berry sorted and fermented and aged in old oak. This is the lowest pH Cabernet made from this Corymbia vineyard in Calgardup in Margaret River, and it is also the greatest. It is a statement and a plea(more...)

The vineyard here is kind of like a secret garden, nestled just a little east of Redgate beach.
Lots of seaweed and sea spray, blackcurrant, ripe redcurrant, a little aniseed and dried rosy perfume. It’s medium-bodied, crisp and juicy, all redcurrant and raspberry, some biscuit flavour, an emery board fine grainy rub to tannin, lots of juicy red fruited energy, a crisp seaweed and umami flavour here, and the finish is saline and long. Very different to your average MR Cabernet, and the relief from oak is also a treat. Excellent. 95 points. Gary Walsh, The Winefront July 2024

Rob and Genevieve Mann are all about expressing their place at Calgardup, and it’s exciting to witness. This is the fifth release off their vineyard, and it entices with heady aromatics of violets and raspberry leaf alongside an array of flavours from cassis, redcurrants and mulberries to nori, Dutch licorice and baking spices. Lots of umami, too, and an ironstone character pops up across the fuller-bodied palate. Precise, almost velvety tannins in unison with lively acidity. Oh, and no new oak used. It’s a refreshing take, with plenty of fruit tannins to ensure this has depth and ageability. 95 points. Jane Faulkner, Wine Companion Oct 2023