Xanadu: From Museum Vintages to Red Wine of the Year
Xanadu has just produced Australia’s Red Wine of the Year. We are going back through the cellar to see how they got there.
The newly released 2023 Xanadu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has been named both Red Wine of the Year and Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year in the Halliday Wine Companion 2027 awards. It is the centrepiece of the day, but it is not the whole story.
Alongside it we open a retrospective of Reserve and Stevens Road Cabernets reaching back to 2012, and six Chardonnays, including three Reserve vintages and older Stevens Road releases, to show how consistently Xanadu has performed and how far its achievements reach beyond Cabernet.
It is a story twenty years in the making: an estate rebuilt from the ground up, and a winemaker, Glenn Goodall, who has guided it the whole way.
“Absolute humdinger. Class in a glass.”
Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, on the 2023 Xanadu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Halliday Wine Companion 2027 Red Wine of the Year)
“Sixteen consecutive releases confirm this as one of the great Chardonnays of Australia and the world.”
Tyson Stelzer on the 2023 Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay
“We’ve long known Xanadu makes incredible Cab Sav.”
Matt Harrop, Chair of Judges, National Wine Show of Australia 2026
Including a Cabernet retrospective back to 2012
and three vintages of Reserve Chardonnay
Saturday, November 14th
Hosted by JJ (John Jens)
Lunch: 12–2.30pm | 12 wines and 4 courses | $195
Masterclass: 3–5pm | 12 wines & canapés | $95
How Xanadu Got Here
Xanadu was founded in 1977 by Dr John Lagan and his wife Eithne, among the early pioneers of Margaret River, and named after the paradise of Kubla Khan in Coleridge’s poem.
The road to Red Wine of the Year was not a straight one. After listing on the stock exchange in 2001 the company grew far too fast, and within four years its share price had fallen 98%. In 2005 the Rathbone family bought the estate and did the opposite of what had gone before. They cut production back hard and rebuilt the vineyards from the ground up, with soil profiling, improved drainage, precision viticulture and lower yields. In 2008 they added the Stevens Road vineyard in Boodjidup, a few kilometres from the winery, whose best blocks the team now calls its grand cru.
Guiding the winemaking through all of it is Glenn Goodall. A New Zealander trained at Roseworthy, he joined Xanadu in 1999 and has led the winemaking since the 2006 vintage. He was named the Halliday Wine Companion 2023 Winemaker of the Year, with the judges praising wines that “exude excellence at every price point”. He has never stopped experimenting, much of it through La Kooki, the small label he runs with his partner Eloise Jarvis.
The range runs in three clear tiers, and this tasting walks through all of them. The Black Label wines are the regional benchmark. Stevens Road is a single vineyard, bottled every year. The Reserve wines are made only when Glenn and winemaker Sophie Ward judge a vintage worthy: the Reserve Chardonnay comes from the original Lagan Estate plantings, while the Reserve Cabernet brings together the best parcels from long-established vineyards in Wilyabrup, Treeton and Wallcliffe.
The results speak for themselves. The 2016 Black Label Cabernet won the 2018 Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy, one of Australian wine’s most coveted awards. At the National Wine Show, Xanadu has now won the Cabernet Sauvignon trophy ten times in 13 years, and this June the 2023 Black Label Cabernet also took the Prime Minister’s Trophy for Champion Wine of Show. In August the 2023 Reserve went one better, named Australia’s Red Wine of the Year. The Chardonnays keep pace: every Reserve vintage on this list has scored 97 points or more from leading critics.
Twenty Years of Work, in Trophies
2026 | Halliday Wine Companion 2027 Red Wine of the Year and Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year | 2023 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2026 | Prime Minister’s Trophy, Champion Wine of Show, National Wine Show of Australia | 2023 Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon
2025 | Best in Show, Decanter World Wine Awards, London | 2022 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2022 | Halliday Wine Companion 2023 Winemaker of the Year | Glenn Goodall
2021 | Cabernet Sauvignon Trophy, National Wine Show of Australia | 2019 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2018 | Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy, Royal Melbourne Wine Show | 2016 Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon
2011 | Among the first Western Australian wineries to gain sustainability certification
The Wine List
First Bracket: Black Label and the Stevens Road vineyard
2018 Xanadu Black Label Chardonnay
95 Points, Campbell Mattinson, Halliday Wine Companion
Excellent intensity and length. Green pineapple, stone fruit, steel and cedar wood flavours crash authoritatively through the mouth. No doubting its variety, no doubting its region. There’s a piercing aspect to the finish but it brings flavour right along with it.
2017 Xanadu Stevens Road Chardonnay
95 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
From the bottom 20 rows of the vineyard, Gingin clone, hand-picked, whole-bunch pressed, wild-fermented in French oak (25% new), stirred throughout 9 months maturation, no mlf. More elegant than many of Margaret River’s best, lower alcohol and higher acidity one reason. Neither sibling relies on oak, this with a laser-bright singular flavour signature. Special. (Drink by 2035)
2016 Xanadu Stevens Road Chardonnay
97 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
Gin Gin clone, from 20 rows of Block 2 on the Stevens Road Vineyard, whole-bunch pressed, wild-fermented in French barriques (25% new), no mlf, matured for 9 months. The Reserve Chardonnay has the complexity that this adroitly sidesteps, contesting its own ground with feline grace, every part of its body precisely shaped and weighted, leaving the palate with an airy freshness that will never tire you. Special. (Drink by 2031)
Second Bracket: three vintages of Reserve Chardonnay
2023 Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay
98 Points, Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com.au
Stunning wine displaying elegance and power in a perfectly structured and presented frame. Aromas of typical pear, florals and a little slaty minerality emerge immediately. The palate is slick and precise but with a deep complexity revealing a combination of citrus, grapefruit and a slightly saline pebbly character. It’s a result of the best barrel selection, and the brightness and linear intensity have been accentuated by having no malolactic fermentation influence.
2021 Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay
97 Points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion
It can happen. One taste and, while thinking about some meaningful words to describe this exceptional wine, I’m already transported to my happy place. The power and beauty of Margaret River fruit are on full display with all the refinement and detail that comes with it. The palate pulses with energy, there’s texture via lees, and judicious handling of oak and fruit, of course. The tensile yet fine acidity weaves everything together towards a super-long finish. (Drink by 2033)
2020 Xanadu Reserve Chardonnay
98 Points, Ray Jordan, Wine Pilot
This comes from the original Lagan planting and is made along similar lines to the Stevens Road, including the avoidance of malolactic fermentation which contributes to its brightness and energy. The difference in the two wines is quite distinct with the finer and relatively more delicate Stevens Road a contrast with the immediately more powerful and concentrated Reserve. Has a distinct minerally chalky mouth feel with a subtle leesy character evident. There’s a little salty saline character especially on the palate which offsets that slight cheese cloth character. It’s another cracking wine.
Third Bracket: the Red Wine of the Year and its company
2022 Xanadu Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon
96 Points, Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com.au
An impressive cabernet sauvignon from a season which produced wines of power and volume with a firm structure. This is all of that. The typical blackcurrant aromas are augmented with sweet plummy nuances. The palate is tightly framed with firm tannins and a decent oak influence from the 40% new French oak contribution. The colour is bright and almost luminous. A wine of energy and vibrancy. If you are looking for great value in cellaring, then this baby is right on the mark.
2022 Xanadu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Best in Show, Decanter World Wine Awards 2025
98 Points, Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com.au
This is sourced from three different vineyards, each of which is more than 20 years old. A superb vintage has perfectly set up this fabulous example of Margaret River cabernet. It has it all, the power, blackcurrant, bay leaf, seamless integration and concentration. The aromas of floral over blackcurrant and red fruits are immediately compelling. Into the palate and the power is evident, But then there is the polish and finish that has gone into presenting an outstanding cabernet. Brilliant.
2023 Xanadu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
Halliday Wine Companion 2027 Red Wine of the Year and Cabernet Sauvignon of the Year
98 Points, Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com.au
This is another of the wines I awaited with some degree of expectation, and like pretty much every cabernet out of twenty-three, it has not failed to deliver. It has exceeded my expectations. It’s a blend of 92% cabernet, with equal proportions of malbec and petit verdot, and comes from a number of different vineyard areas, including Wilyabrup, Wallcliffe, and Treeton. It’s immensely bright and vibrant, with tremendous and sustained power coursing through. But like all of these wines, it’s in the medium-bodied zone with a high degree of elegance and poise. Lots of black fruits on the nose, but then there’s a little blue fruit influence and a touch of rich plumminess. It’s had about fourteen months in oak, of which about 40% was new, and yet the oak is never obvious and sits seamlessly within a harmoniously balanced palate. Tannins are super fine and help the wine retain its incredible palate persistence. A really first-rate example of cabernet from this season.
Fourth Bracket: back through the cellar to 2012
2020 Xanadu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
99 Points, Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com.au
There have been some wonderful 2020 cabernets from Margaret River but none better than this. What a glorious statement of the region and a great vintage. Highly perfumed aromas of mulberry, dark chocolate and blackcurrant with a little plum and dried herb edging in. The palate is full-bodied with immense power. Black fruit, dark plum and some wild berry action with oak that has been almost lyrically laid. Bright and vital with a lithe expressiveness that is pure joy.
2012 Xanadu Stevens Road Cabernet Sauvignon
97 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
From Block 3, crushed/destemmed to open fermenters, hand-plunged for 7 days, matured in French barriques (40% new) for 14 months, final blend assembled, then 2 more months in used French oak. Has that X-factor of Stevens Road, with a fragrance, purity and clarity of varietal fruit that needs no elaboration in the winery beyond that which it receives. Special. (Drink by 2037)
2013 Xanadu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
98 Points, James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion
Includes 5% each of malbec and petit verdot, crushed and destemmed into static and open fermenters for 7-8 days, the cabernet held on skins for 28 days, all components matured for 14 months in French barriques (50% new) before a best barrel selection. Cabernet doesn’t come more intense than this without losing its shape; here it parlays into purity and precision. The fruit and tannins have well and truly absorbed the oak. You might think this can’t be consumed now, but it can - the final achievement. Special. (Drink by 2043)