On June 1 this year, the 5-red-starred winery Xanadu in Margaret River released its latest flagship wines – the 2023 Stevens Road Chardonnay, 2022 Stevens Road Cabernet Sauvignon, 2023 Reserve Chardonnay and 2022 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – which have all been highly rated by Tasting Team member Jane Faulkner.
The two Stevens Road wines hail from a small single vineyard in the heart of Boodjidup, just three kilometres away from the winery itself. The team considers these few blocks of chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon to be their 'grand cru' – with the vineyard only yielding small amounts of fruit each vintage.
And while the Stevens Road wines are bottled every year, the Reserve range is only made when the team (winemakers Glenn Goodall and Brendan Carr) feel it is worthy of wearing the ‘Reserve’ label.
This year, the team has deemed the 2023 Chardonnay made from fruit handpicked from the Lagan Estate vineyard as well as the multi-site 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon worthy of joining the Reserve range. The Chardonnay is single-site, while the Cabernet Sauvignon comes from fruit sourced from long-standing Xanadu growers with mature vineyards in Treeton (Victory Point vineyard), Wilyabrup (Timber Creek vineyard), and Wallcliffe (Rosa Park vineyard) subregions of Margaret River.
The team shared, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” when referring to this wine. And Jane Faulkner agrees, simply calling it a “classy cabernet; a great reserve.”
When speaking to the 2022 vintage, senior winemaker Glenn Goodall shared, “Despite the late start to the season, the fantastic WA summer allowed the growing season to catch up with warm, fine weather and a few very hot periods.”
“Yields were relatively low (especially estate grown Chardonnay), however the fruit quality was excellent with great flavour intensity. A couple of minor rain events punctuated the red harvest, however mid-late April enjoyed classic Margaret River autumn weather – cold nights and crisp, clear days right through to the end of harvest that allowed for complete physiological ripeness and beautifully resolved tannins.
“In summary, 2022 will be remembered as an outstanding vintage in Margaret River.”
2023 was also viewed as an excellent season by the Xanadu crew – but pressure from birds picking at the fruit made their life a little tougher.
Glenn went on to say, “The cool, wet spring which followed meant an extended flowering period for early bloomers, but good fruit-set for most varieties resulted in yields that were generally higher than average.
“There was a complete lack of Marri blossom leading up to and during harvest, which meant that bird pressure was extreme. Bird-netting and monitoring were vital this season!”
Find out more about these four newly released flagship wines from Xanadu by reading Jane Faulkner’s reviews below.
