2022 Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon Margaret River Australia 750 ml

Things change when you win “The Jimmy.”

A few years back, Xanadu Cabernet took home the Jimmy Watson Trophy—one of Australia’s most prestigious wine awards, akin to being named Wine Spectator’s #1 Wine in the US. The wine shot up the most-wanted lists of every collector Down Under. 

Xanadu is still hard to find stateside. But Wine Access members know just how tantalizing these Cabs are. They’ve called them “not just good for Australia but for anywhere,” comparing them to “top North Coast Cabs and Bordeaux at a fraction of the price.”

Margaret River is the epicenter of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. Abutting the Indian and Southern Oceans, the region’s climate is as enticing to winemakers as it is to surfers and sun-bronzed tourists. The ample sunlight, cool sea breezes, and dry ripening seasons of Margaret River help produce grapes with a fine-tannin structure and nurture a complexity that’s often likened to Bordeaux wines.

A staggering 80% of the Margaret River’s plant species don’t exist anywhere else in the world—it’s a completely distinct ecosystem that gives the region’s wines their own unique flair. This mix of Old World grace and New World verve is part of the reason Wine Spectator has said that Margaret River’s best Cabs occupy “the top rank in the world.”

Xanadu has been in Margaret River since its early days as a wine region. Dr. John Lagan and his wife Eithne planted their first Cabernet Sauvignon and Sémillon near the coast in 1977. Today, the property has over 200 acres of vines growing in its well-drained, gravelly soils. Acquired by the Rathbone family in 2005, they remain obsessively quality-focused, which shows in their inspired Cabernets.