2016 Xanadu Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Margaret River Australia 750 ml

Historic Australian Cabernet

Some wines are bigger than scores, destined to make history and become the pride of a nation. That is exactly what happened to the 2016 vintage of Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon when it won Australia’s Jimmy Watson Trophy.

Australia’s most coveted wine prize, the trophy winner is determined by a series of blind tastings and bestowed upon the one- to two-year-old wine that beats all comers, regardless of grape variety or price. The 2016 Xanadu Cabernet, when it took home the 2018 trophy, instantly became a historic wine in Australia.

There was an immediate run on all past vintages of Xanadu—no surprise, for a $30 Cab that bested wines three times as expensive. This is a beautiful red from Australia’s answer to Napa Valley that overachieves, year in and year out. The 2016 edition is energetic and vibrant, with freshly-crushed blackberry and blackcurrant on the nose, juicy black cherry, and blackberry on the palate, and beautiful accents of sweet cedar, spearmint, and clove. It rocks the quality-to-price ratio in a way that is basically unheard of in California, and rare anywhere in the world.

Since domestic demand decimated the supply, Xanadu didn’t even submit their normally 95+ point Cab for reviews, and U.S. supply dropped by 80%! Luckily, we snapped up every remaining bottle, and are sharing them here. Don’t miss your chance at this historic Cabernet at a stunning under-$50 price.

The Margaret River region responsible for Xanadu’s rich Cabernet boasts striking similarities to the California Cabernet epicenter of Napa Valley: Both regions seduce visitors with their sun-dappled, slow-paced lifestyles. Both are youthful but stiff competition to the long-established châteaux of Bordeaux. And both captured the imagination of one of the New World’s most legendary winemakers—Robert Mondavi, who was so convinced of the Margaret River’s world-class potential that he flirted with buying a property in Margaret River in the early 1970s. Although he resisted in the end, Mondavi did mentor a pair of legendary Margaret River estates, whose ascent proved that his hunch about the region was dead-on. 

Xanadu has been there since Margaret River’s early days. Dr. John Lagan and his wife Eithne planted their first Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon near the coast in 1977, and now the Xanadu property has over 200 acres of vines planted in Margaret River’s well-drained gravelly soils. Acquired by the Rathbone family in 2005, Xanadu has stayed family-owned and obsessively quality-focused, and it shows: They take the top Cabernet prize at Australia’s National Wine Show so often that the other wineries might be wondering whether it’s worth showing up at all.