Houghton C.W. Ferguson Cabernet Malbec 2019 - In Bond

Stuart McCloskey, November 2025 “At first, the bouquet is heady and densely packed - this needs a good decant (2-3-hours) to unravel all the layers. Freshness and fruit-succulence emerge with extended aeration. Pen ink, sweet raspberry, blackberry, violet, eucalyptus, graphite, pencil shavings, dark chocolate, herbs (dried mint) anise and iodine… Seaweed after more time in the glass. I would disagree with Aaron Brasher’s ‘Hedonistic’ viewpoint. Perhaps a further few years in the bottle is showing a more refined side to both varietals. The texture is slick and glossy. The fruit is refreshing, I love the ‘tang’ and I love the flowing stream of fruit and sweet, baking spice. Tannins provide good structure. This wine is a true, class act. Wonderful breeding – The quality of the wine / producer is unmistakable. Drink now to 2030. Served using Zalto Burgundy stemware…"

Sarah Ahmed (Aussie and Portuguese specialist and regularly contributes to leading wine magazines, including Decanter and The World of Fine Wine) “This wine pays tribute to Charles William Ferguson, an early Houghton winemaker. Like the Jack Mann, it was sourced from the Justin vineyard, near Rocky Gully. It is a deep purple aubergine skin hue with dark chocolate and ginger (think Green & Blacks) to the nose and palate, creamy cassis, fresh black currant and fleshier mulberry and fleshier plum, with hints of tobacco pouch and sandalwood. Ripe but present, layered fine-grained tannins groom the fruit going through, making for stately progress, with pencil shavings and cedar riffs aplenty. On day two, it reveals raspberry and cured black olive with a subtle eucalyptus lift to the finish.”

Aaron Brasher, The Real Review March 2022 “Impressive, deep, dark and inky colour in the glass. Lifted and intense black fruit aromas, mulberry plum, sweet, spiced nutmeg oak, cola, brambles and a menthol lift. Powerful on the palate, thick and quite unctuous, mouth filling black fruits teamed with lashings of creamy oak. The tannins and acidity are doing their best to kept the opulent fruit in check and behaving. This is quite hedonistic gear, built for the long-haul.”

Gold Medal Winner IWC “Lifted perfumed cherry and blackberry persistent nose. Espresso coffee bean oak notes with fine, gravelly tannins. Beautiful example of cool climate Cabernet and Malbec. Medium-bodied, lovely cherry and blackberry fruit with a touch of peppermint.”

Vineyard: Fruit for this wine was sourced from the sub region of Frankland River in the Great Southern wine growing region of Western Australia. The Frankland River area is characterised by cool winters, warm summer days and cool summer nights. The soils are some of the oldest degraded granitic gravels in the world.

Winemaking: The fruit was hand-picked, sorted, and destemmed into small open-top fermenters. The fermentation was carried out with indigenous yeasts and lasted for a period of eight to ten days. The resulting wine was then gently pressed off skins using a basket press and completed malolactic fermentation in French oak barriques. Following 16 months of maturation, the wine was blended and bottled showing distinctive regional dark fruit and spice characters.