Barry Weinman |October 2025
For the team at Constellation, bringing high-quality wines from their USA stable of wineries must be a bit like trying to sell ice to Eskimos or taking coal to Newcastle, given the spectacular quality of Australian wines that are available.
And the task must be even more daunting when it comes to Western Australia, where we are rightly parochial about the local offering.
Compounding the challenge is the cost of American wines which, for anything of quality, starts at a price point higher than almost any of the local offering, particularly for Napa Valley Cabernet, where the price can run to many thousands of dollars per bottle.
But dismissing the wines outright would be a mistake as they do offer something different if you can afford the price of entry.
Jon Foster, the General Manager of Constellation in Australia, picked out a small cross-section of wines for the panel to try, and I was most impressed. The pick of the wines was Schrader’s RBS – Beckstoffer – To Kalon Cabernet from 2021. One of the most intense and powerful Cabernets that I have tried. But at $750 per bottle, it is beyond the reach of all but the most obsessive and well-funded collectors. And only eight six-packs made it to Australia.
But despite the $350 price tag, I am going to recommend (and buy a bottle of) the 2019 Mondavi – The Reserve To Kalon, such is the beauty and the way it acts as a counterpoint to anything made locally.
And while $160 is not cheap, the premium wines from Lingua Franca are very worthwhile offerings and worth trying if you get the chance.
REVIEWS
Lingua Franca Sisters Eola – Amity Hills Chardonnay 2021
This smells and tastes very expensive. The quality of the oak and the way it has been handled is quite spectacular. The white peach fruit is quite exquisite, the mouthfeel and texture, memorable. The length of flavours and persistence is quite extraordinary. This is very different to Margaret River wines, as the fruit flavours are much more subdued than the local offering, but the presence is something else. The flagship wine of the range. 20 cases imported. 13.0% alc.
Drink: Now-2029 | $160.00
Lingua Franca Mimi’s Mind Pinot Noir 2021
Super pretty and perfumed and very fine and elegant. But the wine was a little cold when poured and was a touch closed on the nose. The minerality and seamless palate transition are a feature. But interestingly, the structure builds backwards, progressing from the back of the tongue, gradually blanketing the fruit in a shroud of fine tannins, acid and oak. Earthy, savoury notes build. Ultimately, the cherry and berry fruit build and make their presence felt. A sleeper.
95 points | $160.00
Mondavi The Reserve To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
Wow, just wow. Absolutely gorgeous fruit leaps out of the glass. Blueberry and blackcurrant and spectacularly ripe. The palate is luscious, powerful and supple, with amazing chocolate. The depth of this wine is breathtaking. The silky, seamless structure is quite amazing. 12 x 6 packs available. Focused. Precise. A striking wine. Great length. Plush, velvety. Great oak. 14.9% alc.
97-98 points | $350.00
Schrader – RBS – Beckstoffer – To Kalon Cabernet Sauvignon 2021
Wow, wow, wow. This is so intense, so powerful and so much of everything. The fruit is ripe. Very ripe, with almost Christmas pudding-layered fruits building and building. And then there is a rush of tannins and, more importantly, acids that rip through the palate, making everything fresh. Having said that, when push comes to shove, the palate is balanced. A powerhouse wine that is at odds with what we make here, and more akin to Barossa Shiraz. 8 six packs imported.
96 points | $750.00