International Cabernet Sauvignon Day is on Sunday August 30. If you haven't planned out what you'll be opening to celebrate yet, we suggest getting your hands on one of these wines. They are from some of Australia's top cabernet sauvignon producers, and regions including Orange, McLaren Vale, Margaret River, Clare Valley and Coonawarra.
If you've already got something lined up for the day, these wines will reward patience, too, so you can always set them aside for a future Cab Sauv Day.
So have a look through the list, grab a glass, and say cheers to cabernet sauvignon!
Make sure you have a read through each wine's Halliday tasting notes, and click the 'buy now' links to shop directly from the producers.
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Cabernet sauvignon and blends to try
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Canobolas Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
OrangeFruit is drawn from the rocky, stony parcels of the vineyard, where vines planted in 1985 are anchored in red ferrosol soils. The fruit was cold soaked and matured in oak (10% new) for 11 months. This is a cabernet sauvignon well worth your attention. Notes of red toffee apple and raspberry weave through blackberry and kirsch, creating both lift and depth. Beneath the fruit lies a reservoir of spice, clove, mahogany and a hint of maple nestled within the bramble. Unsweetened pomegranate juice brings a tart edge, while silty tannins and a subtle black volcanic minerality carry through the finish. There is a striking purity here, as though tasting grapes straight from the vine; a lucid and confident expression of site. -
Mitolo Wines
Mescia Super McLaren 2022
McLaren ValeAn homage to the Super Tuscan wines of the late 20th century, seen through a savoury Vale lens. 67/22/11% cabernet sauvignon/sangiovese/montepulciano, picked and vinified separately, with 20 months in oak, 67% new. Savoury it is, accented with dark spices and earthy tones, but it’s also somewhat generous and fruit intense – blackforest berries, blueberry, mulberry and preserved cherries. Those twin forces work in neat concert, balance à point. There’s also cedar, some white pepper, clove, hazelnut and fine vanillin notes. The tannins are quietly authoritative stewards of the silky texture, the length impressive. It’s a fine addition to the Mitolo canon, and another strike for winemaker Luke Mallaby. -
Cape Mentelle
Heritage Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
Margaret RiverThis is good gear that straddles savoury inputs with a core of beautiful fruit. Mulberries, cassis and some raspberries, snips of fresh herbs, Middle Eastern brown spices, salted plums and licorice. A lot going on and more some when it opens in the glass. Fuller bodied but not weighty. The cedary oak is well integrated and the tannins plentiful, plush and tooth-coating. A lovely vibrancy to this, yes; it’s youthful. Will reward the patient and those who prefer tertiary characters. Back to screw cap for the flagship wines as of this vintage. -
Stone Bridge Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
Clare ValleyA beautiful wine with a juicy yet vibrant consistency. Shaped with fine, suede tannins that draw the wine long and to a fine, bright finish. Cassis, lavender, violets, mulberry, choc-mint and mahogany wood notes. Intensity but vividly clear, fresh and succulent. Old-school, done so very well. -
Wise Wine
Eagle Bay Barrel Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
Margaret RiverThe dark garnet-noir colour entices. Heady aromas of violets, warm spices, leather with flavours of mulberries, cassis, milk chocolate studded with mint plus cedary, charry oak, all in place. This is just shy of full bodied, the palate coated with plentiful textural tannins. There's some grip to the finish yet this feels relaxed and ready to pour, even if it is the flagship. -
Zema Estate
Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
CoonawarraPrunes, fresh dates and blackcurrant fruit straps. A mist of crushed cloves and black sesame. There is beetle leaf, star anise and friable gravelly stones. New leather and long, elongated lines of acidity; it's almost creamy in texture, that's how fine the tannins are. The wine is fresh like living, breathing new potting soil and its instinctive, showing very youthful fruit. Beautifully tailored and with a very long life ahead. Another wine where value is hard to believe. -
Trentham Estate
Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
CoonawarraSeven day fermentation, pressed, 13 months' maturation in French and American oak. Strong in deep purple colour and equally strong in varietal intensity, this well-priced wine has all the hallmarks of a quality young cabernet. Shows enticing, ripe dark cherry, cassis and blackberry with Coonawarra bush mint, earth, dry leaves, licorice, light mocha and spice. Tannins are firm, and the sturdy structure of the wine definitely suggests further cellaring time will be amply rewarded. -
Stones + Thunder
Heavens Awaken Cabernet Sauvignon 2023
Margaret RiverFruit off the Wagtail vineyard in Wilyabrup. In the mix is 10% cabernet franc, aged 16 months in 100% new French oak, which is having the biggest impact. It’s no wallflower yet there’s a core of good fruit, with flavours of blackberries and mulberries, bay leaves and ironstone plus Middle Eastern spices. It's toasty, with lots of charry wood notes. Full bodied and concentrated across the palate, loaded with tannins, all drying and firm. It’s still youthful, so time will be its friend.
Top image credit: Canobolas Wines
