Howard Park Leston Cabernet Sauvignon 2024 6 Pack

95 POINTS

Ray Jordan - Winepilot

There is power here, and you’d expect that from Margaret River Cabernet, but there’s also elegance and stylishness. Plenty of concentrated blackberry and plummy fruit notes, with a touch of spice and vanilla. The palate is neatly woven together with an intricate weave of fine oak, tannin, and that most appealing fruit. An excellent wine.

95 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

Margaret River Cabernet from the Leston Vineyard, which sits in the Wilyabrup sub-region, and from a very good vintage. Maturation was for a year and a half in French oak, one-quarter of it new. Harvested from Blocks 29 and 30 in the vineyard, these vines, all Houghton clones, were planted in 2008. Vibrant magenta/purple, the nose exhibits aromas of chocolate, spices, tobacco leaves, graphite, black cherries, blackberries and superb oak integration. Already, this is most approachable, we have focus and direction with a sleek texture. The wine is finely balanced with good length through to very fine tannins. Superb stuff and should continue to be so for the next ten to fifteen years.

94 POINTS

Cyndal Petty - Winepilot

A very sleek and enjoyable little wine, with clean lines, foot-stomped mulberry, toasted pepi tree leaves and red plums. It’s intellectual, regal even, but I’ll bet it can keep up with the youth of today (myself included, kind of). In the mouth, the tannins are squeaky, like raw cacao powder. The fruit is dense, yet bound tightly. A decant (or a few years in bottle) will bring it out of its shell. Cedar, blackcurrant, chocolate-coated coffee bean and a line of tart fruits: specifically strawberry and just-ripe plums. A powerful wine indeed. Decant it with your lover and enjoy the ride.

93 POINTS

Jane Faulkner - Halliday Wine Companion

While there’s plenty to enjoy here and substance within, this is way too young – it really needs extra bottle age. Until then, expect exuberant fruit flavours of cherries, cassis and mulberries all doused in cedary, spicy oak and fresh herbs. A touch of menthol, too. Full bodied, with slightly coarse tannins (as in silty), with the oak a tad overt, yet this finishes fresh and lively.

92 POINTS

Mike Bennie - The Wine Front

I remember when Leston and Scotsdale became a thing for Howard Park, well, at least in my baby steps in retail. It was an exciting time. The wines came off the block at pace. They still seem to hit some high notes all these years later. This is a ripper luncheon Claret style. You’d see this somewhere remote and be geed up to get stuck in. You’d run amok in a regional bottle shop and find the hot value. It sits in the palate soft and fresh, dark berries, black olive, sweet spice of oak handling, an inkiness and a cool finish. It’s mother’s milk done another way, and delicious and easy and good. Rip in.