Cape Mentelle ‘Wilyabrup’ Cabernet Merlot 2011 (Margaret River, WA)
13.5%, Screwcap, $49
Source: Sample
www.capementelle.com.au

Uncompromising. That’s the best way to describe this quite dry and extractive Margaret River red, the style genuinely surprising in its lack of approachability. You sort of wonder ‘which way will this go’, as you head back for another glass (though maybe not finish it).

By the same token there is much to be impressed by here – notably the length. That palate power, to mine, suggests that time will be more than kind, and that we’re just drinking it too early. Yet it still feels a little baked, a little hard, a little… clinical.

Ultimately, let’s mark this down as a ‘could be great’ and revisit in a years time.

Drink: 2015-2023
Score: 17.8/20, 92/100+
Would I buy it? Not now. But later?