Xanadu
Xanadu is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery — Campbell Mattinson's highest honour.
Its Cabernet Sauvignon has won eleven trophies at the National Wine Show in just sixteen years, a record almost no other Australian winery can touch.
Top Margaret River wine producer Xanadu has long been the source of interesting wines but what winemaker Glenn Goodall has done here since taking the reins in 2005 is staggering to say the least.
The case.
In short Goodall has taken Xanadu from very good to excellent to outstanding, and he’s done this by improving the wines across the board – as much as this is possible – every year. The surge towards quality at Xanadu is relentless. Xanadu’s reputation is built on Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon and it’s the latter that inspired me – in my review of the Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 – to write: “Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon is to Margaret River wine what Wynns Coonawarra Estate Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon is to Coonawarra. It’s the affordable Cabernet Sauvignon that cellars like a charm and, indeed, it’s the affordable Margaret River cabernet that has the ability to knock off all comers. Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon did, after all, once win Australia’s most prestigious wine award, the Jimmy Watson Trophy*. Every Australian cellar should include Wynns Black Label Cabernet Sauvignon and every Australian wine cellar should also include Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon. Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon is that good, and that important.”
We are in rare air with Xanadu. It has come to occupy the territory known as the backbone of Australian wine. Its chardonnay – standard, Stevens Road and Reserve – sits up there with Margaret River’s best. And its cabernet is worth piling into.
The wines that carry the case.
The 2016 Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon won the Jimmy Watson Trophy in 2018.
The 2023 Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon won the Prime Minister’s Trophy for Champion Wine of Show at the 2026 National Wine Show of Australia.
Xanadu Cabernet Sauvignon has won (unbelievably) eleven trophies at the National Wine Show in just 16 years. In what is perpetually a hotly-contested class, this is an achievement for the ages, not to mention the record books.
Xanadu Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2023 won the Halliday Wine of the Year for the 2027 edition of the Halliday Wine Companion book.
Xanadu is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery – the highest honour awarded by Australian wine critic Campbell Mattinson. 10-Star status recognises one thing: the quality of the wine in the glass, every glass, across the range. The full list of 10-Star Wineries constitutes Australia's Best Wineries.
