Chris Ringland Limit Lodge Cabernet Mataro is a blend of exceptional fruit from exceptional vineyards, a new style from winemaker Chris Ringland and grape grower Adrian Hoffmann. The name Limit Lodge comes from a historical parcel within the Hoffmann vineyards, and is also appropriate given the limited number of bottles made. Matured in aged French oak, this is a juicy Cabernet blend rich in dark, plummy fruits with savoury notes of bittersweet chocolate, coffee, and anise. The finish is long with mouth-coating tannins, and a slight salinity. Plenty of potential for ageing.

Château Duhart-Milon is a fourth growth (Quatrième Cru Classé) estate in the Pauillac appellation of Bordeaux. Part of the Domaines Barons de Rothschild, the wine is made by the same winemaking team as Château Lafite. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon with a substantial component of Merlot, the Grand Vin is matured for 18 months in approximately 50% new French oak barriques. Château Duhart-Milon is typically a sturdy solid Pauillac with firm structure and earthy savoury richness.

With a history dating back to 1152, Château d'Issan was established as a third growth in the 1855 classification. By 1945 when the Cruse family purchased this storybook Margaux property with its 17th century Château and moat, it was a shadow of its former self with just 2ha in production. With 44ha planted to 60% Cabernet and 40% Merlot, the Cruse family sold 50% to Jacky Lorenzetti in 2013. D'Issan is now firing on all cylinders, producing a wine that is both fleshy and structured. Up to 40% of the production is declassified into a second wine (Blason d’Issan).

Very precise and focused with tight, sleek yet firm tannins, framing a fresh core of black fruit, gravel and tobacco. Crushed stones and tea leaves, too. Savory and medium-bodied. Driven and linear. Lots of cabernet character. Chewy tannins. Rather muscular. But polished texture. 65% cabernet sauvignon, 32% merlot and 3% petit verdot.

Moss Wood Moss Wood Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Margaret River Moss Wood is one of the Margaret River originals (planted 1969; first vintage 1973) and this iconic flagship wine Langtons Classified since 1990 has long been Western Australias leading Cabernet Sauvignon. Figures from the cellarage company Wine Ark show that it consistently rates as Australias Most Collected Cabernet. Moss Wood Cabernet Sauvignon is intensely perfumed and finely structured with cassis-blackcurrant aromas, hints of cedar and touches of violet. The oak and fruit are neatly balanced. With proven ageing potential the wine develops subtle earth/demi-glace briar characters on the bouquet, and complexity and suppleness on the palate. The unirrigated and widely spaced vineyard (now 14.86-hectares) is planted on gentle north-east facing slopes with sandy loams to a gravelly red/brown loams over clay. Typically the fruit is hand-picked, de-stemmed into open tanks and hand-plunged four times a day until completion of fermentation. At the end of vinification, the wine is allowed to macerate for around 10 to 14 days prior to pressing off into barrel. The wine is matured in 30% new and seasoned French oak barriques for 24 months.

Dating back over 800 years in the Bordeaux region, Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte is owned today by Daniel and Florence Cathiard. The estate also features a world class spa, which specialises in Vinotherapie - using grape extracts in many of their treatments. Up until the year 2000, the estate was not known for producing top quality wines, however in the capable hands of the Cathiard family and after over a decade of hard work and reinvention, the wines truly began to come into their own. It has been, in the words of Andrew Caillard, an astonishing ascendancy in the past 15 years, and given the sterling reviews the 2016 vintage has received, its trajectory seems set to continue its meteoric rise.

One of the original Second Growths of the Bordeaux Classification of 1855, Rauzan-Ségla's 51 hectares of mineral rich soils begin on the banks of the Gironde, on the left bank of Bordeaux. A complex mix of gravel, clay and limestone subsoil imparts a richness and complexity to the Cabernet (62%), Merlot (36%), Cabernet Franc (1%) and Petit Verdot (1%) grapes used to produce this powerfully intense and elegant wine. The estate was last sold in 1994 to the Wertheimer family of Chanel, who employed former Château Latour winemakers, David Orr and John Kolasa. Nicolas Audebert, the former winemaker at Cheval des Andes, the LVMH property in Mendoza Argentina, was hired to succeed John Kolasa following his retirement in 2014.