The range
Cabernet from the two Australian regions that own it, plus the blends. Coonawarra in Wynns and Yalumba The Menzies; Margaret River in Cullen Diana Madeline, Vasse Felix, Xanadu and Cape Mentelle; Western Australia again in Howard Park Abercrombie.
The regional difference is real and easy to taste. Coonawarra grows cabernet on terra rossa over limestone and tends to give mint, blackcurrant and a firm line of tannin. Margaret River is maritime and milder, and its cabernet is usually rounder, with more cedar and less austerity.
Cabernet-merlot blends are included here — Wyndham Bin 888, Woodlands, Petaluma — because merlot is in the wine to soften cabernet's tannin, which is what Bordeaux has always done. Everyday cabernet from Koonunga Hill and Taylors Estate is on the page too.
8bottles. Every one with a reason written against it.
Margaret River, Western Australia
We stock it because it puts serious Margaret River cabernet under fifty dollars. That is where most of a cabernet range should sit, and very little of it is this good.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$41.99
Coonawarra, South Australia
We stock it because it is the value entry into serious Coonawarra cabernet, sitting well below the region's flagships without giving up the character.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$56.99
Margaret River, Western Australia
We stock it because it gives the cabernet range a second Western Australian voice below Cullen. There is a real gap between the sixty dollar and the hundred-and-sixty dollar cabernet, and this fills it.
750 mL14.0%8.3 std
$129.99
Margaret River, Western Australia
We stock it because Margaret River cabernet is the strongest claim Australia has to a world-class red style other than Barossa shiraz, and Diana Madeline sits at the top of it.
750 mL13.0%7.7 std
$159.99
Coonawarra, South Australia
We stock it because Coonawarra cabernet is one of the few genuinely distinctive things Australia does with the grape, and this is the least expensive way onto that strip of red soil.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$14.99
South Eastern Australia
We stock it because cabernet merlot is the blend most people mean when they say they want a red that is not too big, and because nothing else in the top twelve covers it.
750 mL13.5%8.0 std
$13.99
Clare Valley, South Australia
We stock it because it is number nine in the state on its own merits, and because Clare cabernet is firmer and less sweet than the Barossa reds beside it - the two bottles are not interchangeable and the shelf should show that.
750 mL14.0%8.3 std
$19.99
South Australia
We stock it because it is number three in the state behind its own stablemate, and because a customer who has decided on Koonunga Hill has usually also decided which grape they want.
750 mL14.5%8.6 std
$14.99
