Margaret River Vintage Report: 2024 Chardonnay and 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon

Vintage conditions and the 2024 Chardonnays

While 2023 in Margaret River was a dream of a vintage, 2024 took the region’s winemakers by surprise thanks to the earliest harvest on record. Many started picking a month earlier than usual, which proved logistically challenging.

But while winemaking staff holidays were cut short, careful vineyard management and astute winemaking paid off and there’s no shortage of excellent wine from 2024.

‘It was the earliest, driest, hottest vintage on record,’ says Vanya Cullen (pictured, above) of Cullen Wines in Wilyabrup. ‘It was a more challenging vintage, and I think that’s when the vineyard management shows.’

Joanne Davies at Windows Estate in Yallingup agrees: ‘Vineyard management is important in all years, but it was very important in 2024.’

While the overall quality was fantastic, interestingly, when wines lacked balance, it wasn’t due to overripeness.

Instead, they had an angularity, with very striking acidity, perhaps from picking a little too early to mitigate the unseasonable warmth.

The Margaret River region spans more than 100km from north to south, so there’s plenty of diversity.

Variables include distance from the (Indian) ocean, latitude, soil composition, clonal material, vineyard management and winemaking choices.

In my opinion, the 2024 vintage conditions have amplified that diversity, with every winemaking choice spotlighted.

The best wines have firm structure, energy, fruit clarity and bright natural acidity.

While a degree of reduction – a characteristic of certain winemaking processes typically revealed in flinty, smoky or ‘struck match’ aromas – has become a popular stylistic choice for producers, some should err on the side of caution, since its presence can obstruct a wine’s intrinsic flavours.

It’s a shame when you find wines that should show a core of lovely fruit, but it’s being masked by overzealous reduction.

The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignons

Margaret River’s Mediterranean maritime climate provides a consistent cooling system, rainfall is reasonably predictable, frost is (almost) unheard of, and even the warmest years don’t reach extreme levels.

So when a Margaret River vintage is touted as perfect, you know it’s going to be good.

‘2023 was a really lovely “Goldilocks” type vintage,’ says Glenn Goodall, senior winemaker at Xanadu.

‘It’s probably only in hindsight that I say that, though, because at the time I thought, yeah, that was a good vintage. But, wow, when you see these wines once they’re bottled – and I don’t mean just ours, I mean, everyone’s – they’re all really smart.’

Why was 2023 so great? As per the children’s tale, it wasn’t too hot or too cold; it was just right. Other elements contributed, too.

‘The 2023 vintage is up there with 2018 and 2012,’ declares Cullen, ‘because of the lead-in to the growing season, the warmth and evenness of warmth.

'And then the mildness around flowering ensured good crops. The evenness of temperature really produced wines of great flavour.’

What really stands out is the vintage’s consistency. Despite the region’s wide variability in terms of microclimates and soils, 2023 was an exceptionally fair year to all.

Wines are pretty, aromatic, nuanced and very elegant, with supple, defined tannins and abundant natural acidity. There’s plenty of potential for enjoyment in their youth and for ageing.

The thing about a great Cabernet is that the more you come back to it, the more you find. Some of these wines kept surprising me days after opening.

More top Margaret River wines? In addition to the wines shown below, see here for 10 more each of the 2024 Chardonnay and 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon releases, tasted and rated for Decanter by Cassandra Charlick

Margaret River's new-release Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon

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