2025 Halliday Top Rated

Best cabernet sauvignon in Australia 2025

By The Tasting Team

The Houghton Jack Mann Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 has been named the best cabernet sauvignon in Australia.

The Halliday Wine Companion Awards celebrate the best wines in Australia. Below you'll find Australia's top cabernet sauvignon wines, along with the wine ratings awarded by the Tasting Team.

Houghton takes out a major red wine category for the second year running. There’s clearly some exceptional winemaking going on at Houghton. This category was as strong or stronger than ever; the Australian cabernet larder is full of flavoursome, elegant, impeccably structured wines. At the very top end of our judging, the best wines were essentially impossible to split.

2025 Best Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year in Australia

Houghton Jack Mann Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, Frankland River

98 points (PD*) | Price when tasted $179


Houghton Jack Mann Single Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, Frankland River

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This is elegance personified. So smooth, so luscious, so rich and yet it finds levity and a sense of drive. Inky cassis, lavender and violet floral lift, fancy feeling mahogany and new leather elements, clove spice, bay leaf and faint sea spray characters in the mix. It feels quite tightly wound despite its velvety suppleness and flow, tannins in a web of fine, graphite-like mineral accents delivering tension and poise. It's a wine that delivers an experience and visceral pleasure. Drink now after a lusty decant, but save some for long cellaring, too. – Mike Bennie

Learn more about cabernet sauvignon.

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This is an edited extract from the 2025 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Marcus Ellis, Mike Bennie, Philip Rich, Shanteh Wale and Toni Paterson MW. Cover art by Vera Babida.

*Panel decision – score awarded by the Halliday Tasting Team at the annual Awards judging.

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