2022 Yalumba The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon

96 POINTS

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

Yalumba’s The Menzies cabernet, out of Coonawarra, has become a bit of a treasure over the years. This is seriously good. It’s svelte, elegant, powerful and incredibly lengthy. It tastes of boysenberry, pink marshmallows, blackcurrant and bay leaves, with tobacco and mint notes both studded within and lifting away. The combination of grace and potency are really quite something here. Given the over-inflated nature of wine in general – the asking price of this particular wine, even though higher than in years previous, makes this something of a steal. In any case this is a ripping cabernet.

95 POINTS

Tom Kline - Winepilot

Restraint and complexity are the calling cards here, with suave notes of bay leaf, fine cedar, blackcurrant pastille, vanilla paste, graphite and gravel sitting deep in the glass. A good swirl reveals rubbed mint, black olive, dried herbs and allusions of pan juices. The palate is at once elegant and intense, with a cool graphite minerality providing lift and interest. Cedar, vanilla pod and redcurrant lead before black olive, mint, plum and bay leaf take over. It’s all wrapped up in firm, stacked grainy tannins and a piercing line of mint-laced acidity that draws the wine very long. There’s a lot going on here — a classic Coonawarra Cabernet of complexity and poise. Ten years or more in the cellar will see this hit its straps nicely.

95 POINTS

Shanteh Wale - Halliday Wine Companion

Menzies spends 18 months maturing in French oak hogsheads and barriques. Black cherries and plums with late-season mulberries. Some carob and tonka bean with a deeply rooted volcanic-soil savouriness. Powdery tannins coat from front to back, and acidity slides between. A sturdy wine with reliability. Another decade or more in your cellar will unravel the red fruit and compact spice.

95 POINTS

Ken Gargett - Winepilot

The vines for this iconic Coonawarra Cabernet were planted back in 1975. The wine sees a year and a half maturation in French hogsheads and barriques. Bottled under cork. Inky dark maroon, we have aromas of dried herbs, aniseed, blackberries, cloves, animal skins, dark chocolate and kirsch swirling around. There is deft oak handling here and the wine is focused with direction and excellent length. It finishes with satiny tannins and should provide pleasure for at least the next fifteen to twenty years. This is an excellent Menzies.

93 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2022 The Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon is minty and herbaceous on the nose, with notes of peppermint tea, cassis, dark chocolate and menthol. In the mouth, the tannins are finely wrought yet dark, framing the wine in a casing of texture, which dries through the finish. This is a charry, powerful wine with a fresh core. 14% alcohol, sealed under natural cork.

93 POINTS

David Sly - Decanter

There’s serious intensity and concentration in this dark, rich Cabernet Sauvignon. It shows classic Coonawarra characteristics of mint and eucalyptus in lock with bright aromas of redcurrant and raspberry, before the palate sings a deeper song led by taut blackberry riding atop dusty red earth. A firm oak structure plays its part; matured for 21 months in 30% new French oak and Hungarian oak hogsheads and barriques, with the remainder in older American, French and Hungarian barrels, showing that it’s built to last decades in the cellar. Still, it appears fresh and lively now; while stern fine-grained tannins, with a tingle of spice in the tail, show the promise of glory days ahead.

92 POINTS

Decanter World Wine Awards

Ripe red fruits and plenty of aromatic intensity here with savoury, earthy complexity, substantial tannic structure and obvious ageing potential. Award: Silver - DWWA 2026