Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 71

GAME CHANGERS

Margaret
River
Cabernet

Virginia Willcock, who makes the wines at Vasse Felix in Western Australia, has a long history
with Margaret River cabernet sauvignon. She still farms a parcel of vines Tom Cullity planted
50 years ago. Her perspective on the shifting style of the wines helped me understand why
I had, for a time, lost interest in Margaret River cabernet, and then suddenly found myself
ordering it again. "The 1970s and '80s were the beautiful decades of naturally made wines,"
she told me. "In the 1990s, young winemakers armed with a lot of technology began playing with ways to make the wines bigger, more pronounced. Then you see it getting reined
back in, less pushed, less fattened. Nature played a hand in forcing the finer lines in 2002,
2004 and 2008 in particular. Then there was a consistent backing off in 2010, with finer
wine made from here on in; the wines became Margaret River again." Tasting a range of old and young Margaret River cabernet earlier
this year, on the 50th anniversary of Cullity's planting, I was struck by how the best share a similar musculature, their tannins cool, with
none of the barriers formed by drought or heat stress. Their flavors play in variations of fresh currants, often red, sometimes black. It may
be the wines' ability to age with grace, continuing to offer pleasure as they pass from their first decade into their second, that places them
on the world stage of great cabernet sauvignon. And it may be their transparency that distinguishes them from most any other long-lived
cabernets. -J.G.
Cullen 2013 Margaret River
Diana Madeline
A graceful cabernet, this manages high-toned red-fruit ripeness with a lovely gentleness
of tannins. It feels complete,
a rich blend of cabernet sauvignon (73 percent), merlot (20
percent) and cabernet franc
(7 percent), balanced for filet
mignon. The cabernet and
merlot vines for this wine were
planted from 1967 to 1973. (92
points, $109; Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, CA)

Ringbolt 2012 Margaret
River 21 Barriques
Cabernet Sauvignon
Heather Fraser makes this wine
from a vineyard in Wilyabrup,
the vines planted in 1970 and
dry grown. An elegant cabernet that's as aromatic as a
freshly pulled espresso, it has
the brisk ripeness of the 2012
season, its flavors focused on
those coffee notes of oak, with
plenty of clean, high-toned
fruit beneath it. (92 points,
$46; Negociants USA/The
Winebow Group, NY)

Vasse Felix 2013
Margaret River
Tom Cullity
This vintage, from a warm summer and a long, cool harvest
season, layers gentle, savory
tannins and honeyed blue
fruit. Focused on cabernet
sauvignon (76 percent), with
malbec and petit verdot, it's a
young, minty red that needs
bottle age to develop, or short
ribs to show itself more fully.
(90 points, $160; Negociants
USA/The Winebow Group, NY)

Woodlands 2012 Margaret River
Wilyabrup Valley Woodlands Vineyard
Thomas Cabernet Sauvignon
David and Heather Watson planted their first cabernet vines on Caves Road in Wilyabrup in 1973
and 1975. Their sons, Stuart and Andrew, farm
the vineyard and make the wine today, using the
original vines for their top wine each year, a cabernet sauvignon named for a family member or
friend. In 2012, they produced a rich, fleshy cabernet, with marked purity to its black cherry flavor. There's vibrancy to the dark fruit, as if shot
through with ripe yellow plum, the lushness of
the texture checked by tart acidity and a briny,
salty edge. Needing time to integrate, this is a
wine to age before serving with lamb tagine. (92
points, $140; Vine Street Imports, Mount Laurel, NJ)

Xanadu 2014 Margaret River Stevens Road
Cabernet Sauvignon
The cabernet sauvignon in Block 3 at Xanadu's Stevens
Road Vineyard grows in gravelly loam soils, producing this cool, coastal red. It has scents of eucalyptus
and jarrah, with a light breeziness that brings to mind
Loire Valley cabernet franc. The spicy cardamom scent
and tart red fruit balance the round, sweet softness of
the texture, suggesting a match with duck rillettes. (92
points, $90; Rathbone Wine Group, Napa, CA)

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