Cape Mentelle - Products - 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon SG

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2018 Cabernet Sauvignon

“A powerful expression of Cape Mentelle Cabernet Sauvignon.”

Cape Mentelle has a rich history of exceptional quality and consistency with Cabernet Sauvignon, from a pioneering producer in Margaret River in the early 1970s to a benchmark winery today.

Our Cabernet Sauvignon is the culmination of an intensely detailed approach to our vineyards and grape selection. From our vigour and soil mapping techniques to the identification of select parcels and hand-harvesting bunch by bunch, we ensure gentle handling through every stage of production.

Appearance

Dark garnet.

Nose

A powerful nose of dark plum, purple flowers and black tea layered with toasty oak and gamey elements.

Palate

A full-bodied wine with intense blue and black berry preserves on entry, followed by tobacco, savoury and gamey layers, all framed by firm, ripe tannins creating a complex wine of length.

Blend

87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, 5% Merlot.

Cellaring

10+ years.

Food Pairing Notes

Slow cooked beef cheeks or Moroccan eggplant tagine.

Show Technical Notes and Reviews

The Vineyard

This fruit comes from our most iconic plantings within our Trinders and Wallcliffe vineyards, with some of these vines being planted as early as 1970. The vineyard soils are geologically ancient - rich sandy loams with a high percentage of ironstone mottled through clay. Careful canopy management ensured well exposed and positioned fruit, ensuring an environment for fine tannin development, at modest ripeness levels with beautiful balanced acids.

Winemaking

After destemming, the selected vineyard batches are lightly crushed to a combination of wooden vats and closed and open top fermenters. The ferments proceed with wild and selected yeasts and operations are decided day by day, on tasting, without recipe. Post fermentation macerations are long - up to 65 days. At the desired balance of fruit and tannin extraction each batch is gently basket pressed then racked to barrel to complete malolactic fermentation. The wines are matured on fine lees for 18 months in 80% new oak - predominantly French barriques. The final blend remains unfined and is filtered before being Estate bottled.

Analysis

14.5% alcohol, 5.94 g/l total acidity, 3.7 pH

Halliday Wine Companion 2024

Jane Faulkner

From any angle, it’s imposing. Obelisk in structure, rich, ripe and densely packed with excellent fruit and cedary, creamy oak plus tannins. Mulberries, cassis, dark chocolate, nori and sumac come to the fore as the full-bodied palate gives way to tooth-coating tannins, shapely if firm. Lively and vibrant yet better in time.

Jamessuckling.com

James Suckling

Spicy and meaty, this shows a strong emphasis on the oak-derived character, with some leafy complexity across dark berries. The palate has great length and depth with a high thread-count quality to the tannins. Long and seamless with plenty of rich dark-berry fruit impact. Drink or hold.

Ray Jordan Wine

Ray Jordan

One of the wines which helped put Margaret River on the map. This is pure essence of cabernet with thick dark blackcurrant fruit displayed brightly on the nose and then into the palate. It’s super concentrated but refined at the same time. About 18 months in oak has been lapped up hungrily by the fruit and then loaded on to a palate that is driven with urgency to a very long finish.