Howard Park is always the result of the most stringent selection criteria all the way from vineyard to bottle, only the finest fruit and most perfect ferments are included. Extremely high quality parcels of fruit were identified on the vine, two harvests of Great Southern and Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon, assembled alongside a small block of exceptional Pemberton Merlot.

Howard Park's Great Southern vineyards again yielded a harvest of the most richly textured Cabernet Sauvignon, providing the structural backbone. A choice parcel from Margaret River has made a splendid contribution without dominating. Long, long, long! An elegant savoury wine with excellent structure, smells of cassis and cedar oak, luscious and appetising in the mouth, resolves on a finish of dusty herb tannins, lip smacking jube flavours and dulcetly perfumed oak.

Outstanding Langtons Classification. Abercrombie is the flagship Cabernet Sauvignon of Howard Park, noted for its outstanding structure, elegance and complexity. Abercrombie combines the austere dusty earth and blackcurrant aromas from Mount Barker, with the classic rich fruit and chocolate palette of Margaret River. Together they produce an elegantly balanced Cabernet wine with ripe, mature tannins backed up by quality French oak. Produced from the top 1% of fruit and only ever made in years when grapes of extraordinarily high quality are harvested.

Three British Army officers, in their capacity as agents of the East India Company, established one of Western Australia's first agricultural enterprises in 1836. Named after Captain Richmond Houghton, it was not until Thomas Yule's stewardship that vines were planted and the first vintage of Houghton wine flowed in 1859. Thomas Yule now sources fruit from the eminent Justin Vineyard in Frankland River, a dark ruby Shiraz of lifted liquorice and intense brambleberry, seasoned by piquant pepper notes and supported by a length of exceptionally fine tannins.

Houghton operate many of Western Australia's most bountiful vineyards. Nature however plays the biggest role in creating a late harvest wine with lingering ripe fruit characters, supporting acidity and exquisite balance. This exciting Verdelho wine is creamier and nuttier than most, almost Alsace in character, it exudes a perfumed nose of hazelnut and lychee before a generous palate brimming with ripe and developed, elegantly sweet flavours, followed by a crisp clean finish, making it the ideal accompaniment to consomme, desserts and high tea.

Houghton have been making wine for as long as many of the old world's great estates. The peerless quality of their fruit, exacting attention to viticulture, uncompromising excellence in vinification and exquisite balance are qualities which set the wines of Houghton apart. Shiraz was one of Houghton's earliest plantings, a succession of notable viticulturalists and winemakers continued the tradition of developing vines and improving the quality of fruit. The Houghton of today can lay claim to the most splendid Shiraz vineyards in Western Australia.

Houghton is one of a few remaining Australian wineries to hold back small quantities of white wine from each vintage for subsequent rerelease when fully mature. This Museum Release Houghton Riesling demonstrates the superb qualities and ageing potential of a remarkably successful release from Western Australia. This aged example of Frankland River Riesling has developed a bright golden hue while still maintaining a green tinge, which indicated that it has aged well. With 10 years bottle maturation, this wine is considered fully mature.

Excellent Langtons Classification. The icon wine of Houghton, from the elite Justin Vineyard at Frankland River, powerful and complex, crafted in dutiful honour of the late Jack Mann, father of Houghton Wines and sage of the Australian wine industry. Jack Mann contributed more to West Australian wine than any one else. He created styles, often way ahead of their time, yet insisted nature was the only true winemaker. From 1922 Mann made fifty one consecutive vintages at Houghton, ever challenging the standards of his day and leading by example.

Oustanding Langtons Classification. Jack Mann was one of Australia's most innovative and influential winemakers. He immersed himself in the single pursuit of producing the most stately wines while at Houghton throughout a half century of memorable vintages. Cuvee Jack Mann is Houghton's finest wine and Western Australia's most iconic Cabernet. Small amounts of peerless quality grapes, an original Houghton clone developed by Jack Mann himself, are hand picked from the very heart of a distinguished vineyard and individually considered for inclusion.

Frankland River yields remarkable vintages of Shiraz, Houghton were at the very genesis of the region for viticulture, they retain the finest vineyards. A collation of the best parcels from choice sites have been assembled by the Crofters team, treated to vinification in traditional open top vessels, gently pressed to a selection of French oak for completion of ferments and a year of age. Its profound structure and piquantly spiced black currant fruit richness, makes a perfect match with game recipes, well seasoned lamb or freshly ground curry recipes.

Crofters were Scottish tenant farmers who shared the proceeds of harvest with their landlord. Still functional at the Houghton wineworks, is a restored historical homestead of Crofter design. Today, the Houghton team remains at the forefront of viticultural expansion and innovation throughout the premiere winegrowing precincts of Western Australia. It's a well kept secret that Frankland River yields a quality of Cabernet Sauvignon that's world class and second to none. Crofter sings in complete harmony with it's resonant fruit and long delving finish.

The infectious enthusiasm of the late great Jack Mann, encouraged a small number of farmers in the Great Southern to try their hand at viticulture. The three Goundrey vineyards were amongst the first to be planted at Mount Barker, they remain meticulously managed and cared for by a dedicated team who work closely to ensure vintages of the finest fruit. The conspicuous freshness of Homestead Chardonnay is defined as much by the quality of harvest, as it is by a natural, minimalist winemaking approach, completely unwooded and unoaked.

The balmy aspects of Mount Barker yield the nation's most underrated Shiraz wines. Goundrey were here from the very start, amongst the earliest West Australian pioneers, they were inspired by the achievements of the great Jack Mann to take up viticulture in 1971. They now operate a priceless endowment of the most eminent vineyards in the region. Immediately engaging from first sniff, accessible to all, Great Southern Shiraz in the truest sense, ideally to be savoured alongside a serve of smartly dressed chops, either veal, pork or lamb.

Goundrey are based at Mount Barker, where the fortuitious microclimes deliver vintages of the most deeply flavoursome wines, which paradoxically seem more European than Aussie in style. The magnificent Langton estate property is home to Goundrey, recognized throughout the region as one of the most distinguished vineyards in all Great Southern. Essential to the superlative quality of their Sauvignon Blanc is the excellence of Mount Barker terroir, where the vines are stimulated to yield grapes of clean fresh flavours and intense, evocative aromaticness.

Homestead claimed conspicuous Gold Medal wins at the London International Wine & Spirit Competition for Cabernet Merlot two years in in a row, quite an achievement. The Langton Homestead property itself is the most suitable in all Plantagenet Shire for viticulture. It is also some of the oldest country to be settled by pioneers who grazed and established fruit trees. Only the best land was selected by these early settlers and Langton was their prime choice. Highly evocative of the classically French style in Cabernet Merlot, a match to hotpots or braised cheek.

Isolation Ridge are part of a larger wool growing enterprise. The decision to diversify the farm and plant vines came after a tour of French vineyards and two vintages worked at Bordeaux's Chateau Senejac. The Isolation Ridge vineyard is managed to organic viticultural practices which is reflected in the depth and concentration and palate weight of the finished wine. An elegant, tightly knit Shiraz wine that unfolds to reveal opulent flavours and savoury stylishness, the fruit of meticulous care in the vineyard and winery.

A profound construct of West Australian Riesling, from fruit grown to a fastidiously managed site at Frankland River, one of the most isolated vineyards in the world, the product of uncompromising standards in viticulture. The vineyard is planted to Geisenheim and Rhine Riesling clones, into ironstone gravel over loam and clay subsoils, on an undulating northeast facing slope. Isolation Ridge slowly opens up in the glass, exhibiting purity of flavour, exceptional balance and a refined natural acidity, which carries the wine today and well into the future.

Established 1965, Forest Hill is the oldest cool climate vineyard in Western Australia and the first ever commercial planting in all of Great Southern. This solidly structured Shiraz demonstrates the virtues of a region that's endowed with an outstanding potential to craft the most intensely structured Rhone style wines. A medium bodied, fleshy style, Forest Hill displays white pepper and subtle spice on the palate enhanced by delicate toasty vanilla and perfumed Burgundian oak flavours, fine chewy tannins and a full firm finish.

Forest Hill's experience with Riesling dates back forty years to when the first two acres of vine anywhere within the Great Southern region were established. One of the most precious sites planted to the superior terrains around Denmark, it was selected by Dr John Gladstone, one of the pioneers of West Australian viticulture, later acquired by Robert Holmes à Court. Nothing short of exquisite, a fine acid structure will see it evolve beautifully, clean varietal fruit and softness make it a perfect match today alongside Thai prawns in ginger, chilli and lime.

Mount Barker shares an uncanny confluence of soils and clime with the world's great Malbec regions, the unique gravelly terroirs of Bordeaux, the nether latitudes and invigorating elements of Mendoza. Malbec was planted at Forest Hill in the 1990s, now in their third decade of productivity, they yield the rare quality of Malbec that merits bottling as a pure varietal wine. Multi dimensioned and structured, an intensity of blackcurrant, cherry and cloves, its well proportioned palate lined with mocha, supported by the softest tannins, resolving on a lingering, black olive finish.

Forest Hill is a Great Southern of class and distinction, a Chardonnay of elegance and controlled intensity. Aromas of ripe peach and apricot are complemented by light citrus, hints of vanilla, dry fig and perfumed lifted Burgundian oak introduce a style with rich intense full palate backed by pleasant hints of roasted almonds and butterscotch. The product of choice fruit from a great vineyard, the recommended match to salt & pepper squid, a combination that will amalgamate its savoury notes with the fine acid structure and complexity of such a vibrant wine.

The Forest Hill philosophy is to make individual wines of the highest quality which can express the distinctive regionality of Mount Barker. They have taken aim to produce an approachable, understated Cabernet that's a pure expression of the unique blocks that lie within the forty year old Forest Hill vineyard. An exuberant wine displaying intense layers of plump black fruits, chocolate box aromas and well integrated, luxuriously tight grained oak. An accomplished Cabernet of finesse and elegance, of power and suitably vigorous varietal definition.

Forest Hill work hard at extracting the best possible Shiraz out of Block 9. Better soil maintenance with no herbicides and more composted material, while leaf plucking is applied earlier in the season and more diligently. The maturity of the vines, management of the property and evolution in the quality of fruit all impact on the excellence of the finished wine. Its long and fine, chewy structure is dominated by bold varietal fruit characters, while the background gamey nuances intensify the palate, along with subtle earthiness and sweet spice undertones.

At the core of Forest Hill's elite range of single block editions, are the original estate plantings of the 1960s and 1970s. These gnarly old vines are deep rooted and dry grown, defined by their low vigor and scant harvest of tiny berries, conspicuous for an intenity of flavour and wonderful crystalline textures. These are the earliest and most precious parcels of Chardonnay in all Great Southern, yielding a graceful yellow wine, brimming with golden peach and grapefruit characters, florals, almonds and flint, its powerful mineral finish driven by juicy, ripe stonefruit acidity.

One of the great endowments of Forest Hill is the age and maturity of its cool climate vineyard. Home to the Great Southern's eldest Cabernet vines, the original plantings are over forty years of age. These unirrigated vines on their own roots produce concentrated and complete wines, elegant and refined. Fashioned from the estate's very best parcels of select, hand picked Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, Block 5 exhibits splendid concentration of silky, grainy tannins, extraordinary intensity and ripeness of fruit with engrossing overall complexity.

Forest Hill Vineyard is planted very close to Mt Barker, its unique topography, deep gravel soils and proximity to the Southern Ocean assures mild summers with cooling southerly breezes. Identified in the 1970s by gentleman James Halliday as the most outstanding Riesling of the Australian west, Block 1 is a sacred old parcel, one of the first ever planted in Great Southern. Wild yeast fermented for richness and complexity, vibrant and crisp with juicy natural acidity, Block 1 sings of its Mount Barker provenance, a long, lingering, flinty finish in a graceful, old vines, Riesling way.

A salient expression of Chardonnay by a rising star amongst Margaret River's most conspicuous new winemakers. The secrets to Flametree's success are access to the best possible fruit and innate skill of the team to create beautifully crafted wines which capture the flavour of the region whence they originate. Choice grapes from exceptional sites have been vinified into a profound wine of oak barrel ferment richness and fragrant custard spice, grapefruits and fig over a framework of delicately integrated quality French oak.

For those who like their Chardonnay in the big boned euro style, mesmerisingly layered in complexity and flavour, richly barrel fermented in a high proportion of new French oak, followed by ten months building palate texture and infusing interest as it ages over gross yeast lees. Angelo and Wendy Diletti selected the Castle Rock site in 1981, with a view to creating a range of superlative wines which express the opulence of Albany's magnificent maritime clime. Brimming with stonefruits, meal and brulee, the Chardonnay of choice to accompany white meat recipes, fresh fishes or fowl.

The propitious vines are enthused by the scents of lofty karri tree blossoms, to yield harvests of the ripest, most flavourful grapes, intense with ripe brambleberry characters and redolent with the piquant cologne of local gums. Castelli make a Cabernet Merlot accord which expresses the magnificence of the Great Southern mesoclime, its lifted bush fruit aromaticness, velvet tannins and divine French oak, make a match to the finest gourmandise, game bird recipes, pate, pork and veal terrines or emmentaler gratin.

The Castelli brothers are highly accomplished international engineers with a no expense spared approach to making great wine. Choice harvests from superlative vineyards at Frankland River and Mount Barker are assembled for an outstanding construct of Shiraz. Frankland River contributes rich mulberry flavours, Mt Barker adds complexity and spiced black pepper characters. An attractive earthy richness is at the core of the fine boned, textural palate, the oak is seamlessly integrated with the layers of fruit, all supported by fine, savoury tannins.

The Rieslings of the greater Porongurup and Mount Barker regions are known for their unassailable structure and penetrating fruit character. They have a style all their own and compare favourably to the classics of Australia's most prestigious appellations. Castelli treat their fruit with an urgency that's aimed at snap preserving the excellence of Great Southern Riesling. Treating the juices with delicacy and respect achieves a marvelous wine of complex floral and stone fruit perfumes, supported by a focused palate of pensive intensity and textural minerality.