As detailed here, red Bordeaux blends are not necessarily, as the name implies, red blends from Bordeaux. Rather, it’s a term used for wines that (regardless of their origin) are modelled on the traditional style of this French region and made from its five key varieties: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, malbec and petit verdot.
Like their inspiration, these wines are usually either cabernet or merlot dominant, with malbec and petit verdot – and very occasionally, carménère – used sparingly to add colour and spice.
Most Bordeaux wines are blends; however, it’s not a requirement of the appellation, with the highly revered Pétrus, made from 100 per cent merlot in Pomerol on the Right Bank, a notable exception to the practice. But even though it’s much more common for these grapes to be used in straight varietal wines (and labelled as such) in Australia, the strength of association between these varieties and their native region still puts them, consciously or not, in similar categories.
Below, you'll find six more wines made with either a blend of Bordeaux varieties or as single varietals, from Tapanappa, Stone Bridge Wines, Forest Hill, Forester Estate, Flowstone Wines and Curly Flat.
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Bordeaux Wines to try
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Tapanappa
Whalebone Vineyard Blend 2021
WrattonbullyA blend of 53/16/16/15% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/cabernet franc/shiraz. Matured in 50% new French barriques for 18 months. A wine that is as vivid as the imagery of the whale skeleton found buried beneath the vineyard. Fresh figs, boysenberry and Chinese bayberry. Tea, rose bud, goji and pomegranate molasses. There is a heart of red fruit with surrounding coffee and mocha spice. The palate is a weaving thread of silky tannins; Xavier has such talent for texture and expansion of a wine's length and dimension. A wine that reverberates throughout your whole body. -
Forest Hill Vineyard
Cabernet Malbec 2024
Mount BarkerLots of light and shade in this wine. Dark, plummy fruit but stony minerality elevating things, some pipe tobacco characters, violet floral lift, dried Italian herbs, pepper and cedar. It feels a little sinewy in tannin profile, but pleasing in its draw and pucker. A game meat note, too, barely there, but present. Very charming, restrained, if not a touch diffuse, but super drinking anyway. -
Forester Estate
Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
Margaret RiverNo doubt time will be this wine’s friend; today, it is youthful and a tad raw. A vibrant dark red with mulberries, blackberries encased in dried herbs, wintergreen, baking spices and tapenade. It’s fuller bodied, with sweet fruit across the palate, an abundance of grainy tannins and perky acidity. This is very good. It will meld well in another year or so and be all the better for it. -
Flowstone Wines
Queen of the Earth Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
Margaret RiverShowing some development and the cool season with distinct aromas and flavours of raspberry leaf, cranberries and wintergreen, yet plenty of pleasing varietal inputs, too. Cassis, mulberries infused with gum leaves, mint, some dark chocolate and spicy, cedary oak. Elegant in its medium-bodied frame, with lithe tannins and fine acidity. A lovely drink and ready now. -
Curly Flat
Williams Crossing Cabernet Franc 2025
Macedon RangesA new wine, it would seem, and not estate fruit. I like it. It’s juicy and tangy, just bordering on green, but other flavours keep any overt herbal notes at bay. Cassis, barely ripe blackberries, raspberry leaf, a touch of wintergreen and lapsang souchong, finishing with refreshing acidity and lightly raspy tannins.
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