2024 Dominique Portet Fontaine Cabernets

95 pts Trophy!
A trophy-winning Yarra Valley cabernet blend that marries the Portet family’s Bordeaux heritage with outstanding value and drinkability.

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Sale price$28.00
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Description

With Bordeaux in their blood, the Portet family have always had a soft spot for cabernet blends, and the Fontaine Cabernets is their way of showing that pedigree in an easy, everyday style. The 2024 is cabernet sauvignon at the core, with merlot, malbec and cab franc rounding things out, all from vineyards scattered across the Yarra Valley.

The season was cool and steady, giving fruit that’s vibrant and finely balanced. Hand-picked, gently fermented, then aged for 10 months in French oak (only a splash of new), it’s a wine that feels polished without being fussy. Medium-bodied, full of dark berries and violets, with silky tannins that make it just glide along.

And while it’s made to be approachable, this vintage really over-delivered - it picked up 95 points from the Halliday Wine Companion and impressively went on to win the Trophy for Best Red Wine at the Yarra Valley Wine Show. Pretty amazing for something still comfortably under $30 a bottle.

This is Bordeaux know-how with Yarra freshness, and one of the best-value reds you’ll come across. Back up the truck!

"An excellent edition of this perennially good and well-priced wine... One of the Yarra's absolutely best buys."
- Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

95 points - "Trophy for Best Cabernet Blend & Best Red Wine of Show" - Wine Show Trophy (2025 Yarra Valley Wine Show)

95 points - "A blend of 60/29/6/5% cabernet sauvignon/merlot/malbec/cabernet franc. Matured in 15% French oak. An excellent edition of this perennially good and well-priced wine. A deep, bright crimson purple. Explodes from the glass with ripe blackcurrant fruit, violets and a hint of cedar. Medium bodied, with excellent verve and silky (for cabernet) long-chained tannins. Great now and over the next four to six years. One of the Yarra's absolutely best buys." - Philip Rich (Halliday Wine Companion)

Customer Reviews

Customer Reviews

Based on 3 reviews
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67%
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A
Adrian H.
Is This a Great Cabernet ???

Bright mulberry / garnet colour (not deep purple). Dusty (old)oak on the nose, with classic Tobacco leaf, eucalyptus, bacon fat, and spices. A complex savoury nose, (not fruit driven), Bordeaux in style. The palate is firstly stalky with grainy tannins, obvious oak, savoury not fruit driven with good length and persistence and an overarching acid profile.
A good example of a French Bordeaux style Cabernet blend. Made in the savoury, acid dominant (background fruit) that typifies the region. Drinking nicely now, but will benefit from 5 - 10 years in the cellar to fully integrate and soften.
A good example of the style, but is it a great Cabernet ??? Is it a Trophy winning Cabernet blend ??? Certainly a worthy Gold medal winner and good value for money. For my palate, just lacking in fruit profile from the merlot / malbec, and dominated at this stage by oak, tannin and acid.

D
David C.
Great value

Very good Yarra Valley Cab Sauv - extremely good value - Bold, juicy 'forest' berries, complexity will further develop. Great now with beef or lamb or give it some more time in the cellar!

G
Garth W.
Delicious cabernet

This is a medium bodied utterly delicious cabernet. Its a bottle that keeps inviting you back for another glass

For us, the Fontaine wines represent the full breadth of the Yarra Valley by sourcing from a range of vineyards in both the northern and southern ends of the Valley. The sites are all north facing for maximum sunshine and are generally clay based soils with broken sandstone, allowing for excellent water retention. This enables the vines to handle summer drought and consistently deliver concentrated yet elegant wines.

A mild spring with high rainfall set the scene for the cool growing season. Summer began dry and remained below average temperature throughout - in the end the season brought everything together albeit much later than the previous year and gave us a wine that resulted in a really classic Yarra style of Bordeaux blends - restrained and fruit driven with fine tannins. We strive for drinkability through elegance, and the season came through to deliver exactly that.

Hand picked and sorted by mechanical sorting line, then fermented at a relatively cool temperature to accentuate the aromatics and brightness. The wine spent 20 days on skins, before being moved to French oak barrels, of which 20% are new and then aged for 10 months prior to bottling.

Price Bracket $30 or Less
Type Red
Body Medium Bodied
Variety Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety Style ["Cabernet Blends"]
Country Australia
Region Yarra Valley
Australian State VIC
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
Critic Score 95
Alcohol 13.5%
Size 750ml
Vintage 2024
Closure Screw Cap

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