Cape Mentelle Brooks Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2024 Margaret River

Winemaking Notes
The Cape Mentelle Brooks Sauvignon Blanc 2024 is crafted from a blend of 71% Sauvignon Blanc and 29% Semillon, sourced from Cape Mentelle's cooler vineyard sites—Chapman Brook (72%) and Crossroads (28%)—that are perfectly suited to both varieties. The vineyard team are tasked with delivering pristine fruit to the winery with crunchy acidity and fresh aromatics, achieved through careful canopy manipulation and harvesting in the cool of the night to preserve the wine's crisp, radiant character. Cape Mentelle takes a non-interventionist approach towards this classic Margaret River blend, allowing the region and varieties to speak with loud, clear voices whilst aiming to preserve fruit intensity and purity. The fruit was destemmed, crushed and rapidly pressed to capture vibrant fruit characters with bright acidity, with low-temperature fermentation used alongside selected yeast to accentuate fresh varietal characteristics. The majority of batches were fermented in stainless steel tanks to dryness, with individual lots resting on lees for four months to build the generous texture and palate weight that define this wine. A small portion of Sauvignon Blanc was fermented in seasoned French oak, adding subtle complexity and supple texture. Once assembled, the final blend was minimally fined and filtered before bottling, resulting in a dynamic wine that is bright and punchy with green melon, passionfruit and guava, coupled with driving minerality and fine phenolics that add dimension. Delicious now, this wine can also be enjoyed for up to five years after the vintage.

Vintage Conditions
The 2024 vintage in Margaret River will be remembered as the season with barely any rain across the entire growing period and one of the region's earliest starts to harvest, presenting both challenges and opportunities for Cape Mentelle's winemaking team. The dry conditions throughout the growing season required careful vineyard management and irrigation to ensure the vines remained healthy and the fruit achieved optimal ripeness whilst retaining the crunchy acidity and fresh aromatics essential for this classic blend. Fortunately, the fruit quality was exceptional, with the cooler Chapman Brook and Crossroads vineyard sites proving ideally suited to producing Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon of remarkable purity and intensity. The early harvest timing allowed the team to pick the fruit at precisely the right moment, capturing the super bright and expressive aromatics of yellow grapefruit pith, green mango and crushed lime leaf that define this wine's character. An additional benefit of the 2024 vintage was the abundant marri blossom, which kept the birds at bay and protected the pristine fruit quality. Senior Winemaker Coralie Lewis notes that this warm vintage maintains tension and focus, with bright summer fruit flavours from the Sauvignon Blanc combining beautifully with the generous texture from the Semillon. The combination of careful viticulture, cool night harvesting and the non-interventionist winemaking approach has resulted in a wine where the land and ocean are vividly expressed—an approachable yet elegant expression that showcases the vibrant citrus side, succulent acidity and driving minerality that have established Margaret River as one of Australia's premier regions for world-class Sauvignon Blanc Semillon blends.