2020 Mystery Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon Deal No. 83

97 POINTS

Ray Jordan - Winepilot.com

A wine that pays homage to Dr John Gladstones whose work was largely responsible for the development of Margaret River. This is right up there with any that have been made, coming from a vintage that was well suited to the variety. Leafy blackcurrant fruit with a graphite oyster shell nuance working with a sliver of black olive. It’s a substantial and powerful wine, yet there is elegance and poise that stems from the clever balance of fruit, oak and tannin

96 POINTS

Kasia Sobiesiak - The Wine Front

I expected a wine that would storm the palate, rip the gums off and take no hostages. I was wrong. So much grace in this wine. Elegance speaks through the flavours and structure. Lots of red fruit character and a lightness of being. First, sundried tomatoes with that herbal but sweet note. Then redcurrant, pomegranate, raspberry, black plum. Tobacco and dried peppermint set the tone on top of the bright, tangy fruit. There’s an oyster shell, a mineral type of overtone, that sort of salty-umami tension pitched higher than the peppermint note. Tannins. Fine, tight and cool with a graphite/stoney aftertaste. Acidity. Succulent and bright, the same you get in the aforementioned tomatoes once you chew through the concentrated flesh. Oak. Almost invisible, cedar, light char and cumin in aromas. Flavours vibrate in the back, composing a long-lasting finish. It’s a wine I spent some time with and so should you. Don’t rush it; it unfolds slowly and gracefully. So ready to enjoy now. A very pure and elegant one, the Gladstones.

95 POINTS

Jane Faulkner - Halliday's Wine Companion

There’s no denying the presence of the variety and its region. It’s intensely flavoured: full of mulberries and cassis, five-spice and cedary oak with wafts of violets and cooling menthol. It’s fuller bodied and structured but not weighty, it seems to effortlessly work across the palate with shapely tannins and refreshing acidity. Houghton may be a shadow of its former self, but this wine isn’t; it stands proud and tall.