Cape Mentelle Explorers Blend 2024
- 95
- $80
- Drink by: 2026-2044
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An impressive blend, an extension if you like of the traditional Cape Mentelle Merlot Petit Verdot blend. Explorers is Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and, truth be told, it’s just a little intimidating at this very early stage which is why a decant is recommended. Let the air in and the wine’s immediate deep concentration and firmness relents, allowing a visit into dark fruited wine territory laid out on a path of dried herbs, sage, leaves and autumnal notes with background Merlot-induced rose and lavender floral aromatics. The role of Petit Verdot is noted with its firm tannin presence, so, too, the integration of smart oak. And that amazing impenetrable purple colour stays with you, a striking opening scene that places you immediately in Margaret River red wine territory.
Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.
