Jane Hoffman

9.5

Spicy and peppery, even a bit smoky, with rich dark red cherry and baked blueberry flavors — 3 months ago

Ellie

9.0

Love the flavour. Could do with couple more years to develop just a slightly smoother finish on palette. — 2 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.3

Pale Lemon in colour. Aromas of Talc and Musk along with the Citrus blossom. The shrill acidity of 6 years ago now much subdued. A classic aged Great Southern Riesling - 11.5% ABV. Several more years left in it up to its 10th Birthday. No Kerosene. — 3 years ago

Oh Li

9.0

Quite full bodied but not too much. Don’t feel the tannins and smooth. Not fruity. Love it. with DT and sudave — 4 years ago

Bob McDonald

9.5

A youthful Ruby red with a purple tinge. Black pepper, dried plum and other savoury dark fruits. A wonderful rendition of a Northern Rhone Syrah - not dissimilar to a good Saint Joseph. Still young in its drinking window with a long future into the 2030s. Winner of the Trevor Mast Trophy for best Shiraz at Royal Melbourne in 2019. The first of 6 bottles. Great value for only $38. It’s not often I taste the same wine only 4 weeks apart but I had a 2nd on 4th December 2022. Just a terrific Shiraz by any measure. I can see why it won the awards that it did. Black pepper and spice. — 7 months ago

Alex Kate

9.0

Nice red, cheap — 2 years ago

Daniel Waugh

9.0

Tons of lime up front, very soft residual taste. — 4 years ago

Johnno Harris

9.6

Outstanding. The bottle is far too small!! — a year ago

Bob McDonald

9.4

Initial impressions were mint, capsicum and herbs. Savoury winning out over fruit. More red currant rather than black currant Barb thought. Expected a little more mid palate fruit which is one of the reasons that Margaret River Cabernet is more complete than the cooler climate Frankland River (south east of Margaret River) where this is the product of a single vineyard. Don’t get me wrong this is still a wonderful Cabernet which honours the amazing contribution of Jack Mann who made wine for Houghtons for 51 consecutive vintages. — 2 years ago

Aaron Tan

9.3

Been a fan of this cuvee since it's inception. To me, this is about as close as Aussie riesling gets to its German counterpart. Neither a good or bad thing, but I love that link between two countries I adore in this wine. That said, this was one of the best Aussie rieslings I've had all year.

German inspired methods on Western Australian fruit. From Frankland Estate's website:

All riesling grapes are harvested as cool as possible and pressed immediately, slow press cycles allow for soft and long extraction. Blocks and picks are kept separate and some juice from most blocks is fermented in barrel format for interest and comparison purposes. Picking decisions are made on ripeness and fruitfulness, with the main aim of working with natural balance yet intentionally look for greater ripeness with this wine and as a result greater degree of phenolic influence and texture. Juice is sent to tank to settle overnight (without enzyme or any additions). A cloudy juice is run to a combination of 1000ltr and 500ltr barrels. Fermentation is spontaneous and temperature controlled to some degree but temperature range is generally higher than tank fermentations. Post fermentation barrels are topped and left un-sulphured through to spring time quite often if residual sugars are high fermentation will be left to start again in spring as juice warms. Sulphur will be introduced when a decision is made on the vitality/fruitfulness of the wine and residual sugar is seen to be in balanced with the wine. Wine was left in barrel for 10 months (January).

The resulting wine is textural, spicy, and generous. Doesn't quite have the extract of German rieslings, but there's length, balance, and most importantly, it's uniquely its own wine. I feel that the provenance of the fruit shines through all that winemaking - that crunchy fruit-first with more green apple/citrus than stone fruits, steeliness, and light whiff of smoke/petrol. It's also remarkably clean for a barrel-treated wine (say compared to Koehler-Ruprecht or JB Becker). Enough with the rant because the takeaway is that it's delicious! — 4 years ago