Founded in 1970 by the pioneer David Hohnen (who also founded Cloudy Bay in Marlborough) and his brothers Giles and Mark Hohnen, Cape Mentelle was one of first commercial vineyards in Margaret River.
The estate started with 16 hectares of vineyards and during 50 years expanded to its current size of 150 hectares of land under vines.
Throughout the 70s and 80s wine making at Cape Mentelle was characterized by experimentation to improve quality, understand the potential of the fruit from each particular vineyard and develop a distinctive house style.
Nowadays the estate is owned by the luxury good company LVMH.
Since 2020 the vineyards are grown following sustainable practices, without herbicides, and with the use of cover crops to control the vigor of the vines and add biodiversity to the vineyards.
The use of precision irrigation allows the estate to use only the necessary water, resulting in a 60% decrease in water usage from 2016 to 2019.
The climate is Margaret River is similar to Bordeaux, resulting in excellent quality Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon among other varieties.
Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
The fruit comes from the plantings within the Trinders and Wallcliffe vineyards, with some of these vines being planted as early as 1970.
Planted in rich sandy loams with a high percentage of ironstone.
After destemming, the selected vineyard batches are lightly crushed to a combination of wooden vats and closed and open top fermenters. Post fermentation macerations are up to 65 days long.
Each batch is gently basket pressed then racked to barrel to complete malolactic fermentation. The wines are matured on fine lees for 18 months in 80% new oak - predominantly French barriques.
Finally is bottled unfined and after a light filtration.
The blend is a majority of Cabernet Sauvignon 85%+ with a small proportion of Merlot and Petit Verdot.
