December 2024 MEDIA KIT
Mentelle Explorers
With the 2024 vintage progressing smoothly in the winery, our winemaking and viticulture teams are already preparing for the 2025 season. Allocation and blending are currently taking place in the winery. Extensive work is underway in our estate vineyard to increase our plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, while our Chapman Brook Vineyard is gaining some additional Chardonnay vines which will one day feature in our newly released Heritage Chardonnay.
Chief of Winemaking and Viticulture, David Moulton:
"It's an exciting time of the year, the vines have come out of dormancy and the focus turns to making sure we make the most of the 2025 vintage. The new plantings are an opportunity to increase clonal diversity and ensure our vineyards are set up for the next 50 years. I can't wait to see the fruit that we grow from these new blocks".
We are delighted to present to you our 2024-25 Summer Wine Club pack featuring a vertical of the trail blazer Wallcliffe Sauvignon Blanc Semillon along with an exclusive release of our 2019 Heritage Cabernet Sauvignon.
Enjoy!
TASTING NOTES & Reviews
2016 Cape Mentelle
WALLCLIFFE SAUVIGNON BLANC SEMILLON
"A really good wine that was (and remains) a trail blazer for long-lived SBS in the style of white Bordeaux. Barrel fermentation is an important part of the wine's style - when done well you get a wine such as this."
95 Points, James Halliday
2018 Cape Mentelle
WALLCLIFFE SAUVIGNON BLANC SEMILLON
"From a producerwith a proven track record of ageing, and the magnificient '18 vintage. A powerful, statutesque wine. The oak has a big impact both aromatically and on the palate, its final kick is through the finish."
95 Points, Erin Larkin
2022 Cape Mentelle
WALLCLIFFE SAUVIGNON BLANC SEMILLON
"Oak fermentation and the use of a concrete egg all help in the composition to create a harmoniously balanced wine of layered complexity and richness. The technique highlights the minerality while retaining the mix of tropical and stone fruit characters that make it so appealing. Will handle cellaring."
95 Points, Ray Jordan
2021 Cape Mentelle
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
"A typical Margaret River cabernet with all the enticing aromas and flavours. Mulberries, blackberries and cassis, leafy freshness and some just-picked herbs, plus the more savoury notes of black olive tapenade, nori and licorice."
94 Points, James Halliday
2022 Cape Mentelle
CHARDONNAY
"A light and fragrant chardonnay, but one with intriguing complexity that emerges almost immediately. Light lemon meringue with a little grapefruit and roasted almond break out on the nose. The palate is precise and fine with a delicacy that belies the intensity driving through to a sustained finish. Has a chalky acid and slightly savoury finish."
93 Points, Ray Jordan
2019 Cape Mentelle
HERITAGE CABERNET SAUVIGNON
"A dense nose with cooked cherries and a slightly baked, concentrated, quite solid palate. Fresh, punchy, and tight-knit, with notes of garrigue, herbs, lavender, orange peel, and mint. It's young and very fresh, and very graceful too, with a big finish."
93 Points, Margaret Rand, World of Fine Wine
OPTIONAL WINES
2018 Cape Mentelle wallcliffe
petit verdot cabernet franc
"It's an interesting combination and it works so beautifully. The ripe dark fruit of the intense petit verdot is complemented by the high-end perfumed aromatics of the cab franc."
94 Points Ray Jordan
2020 Cape Mentelle
shiraz
"An amazing bright colour for starters, all dark purple shot with black and red. The delight continues across a fuller-bodied palate that's full of dark plums, cloves, turmeric and Sichuan pepper - a bit of excitement here. The tannins are shapely, slightly grainy and everything comes to play a harmonious chord."
95 Points Jane Faulkner
2022 Cape Mentelle
Zinfandel
"Dry grown, low yielding bush vines from our original Estate Vineyard can be prone to unruly behaviour! However, with great attention to detail these vines deliver an incredible layered wine of depth and power, a truly memorable experience."
Coralie Lewis, Senior Winemaker