2024 Dominique Portet Fontaine Cabernets | 95 Point Trophy Winning Yarra Valley Red

Best Red Wine in Show at the 2025 Yarra Valley Wine Show

One of the Yarra Valley's Best Cabernet Buys

95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

Yarra Valley, Victoria

RRP $33 a bottle

Every now and then you find a wine that makes you wonder how it can possibly sell for the price.

The 2024 Dominique Portet Fontaine Cabernets is one of those wines.

From one of the Yarra Valley's benchmark producers of Bordeaux varieties, this is a beautifully perfumed, medium-bodied and silky Cabernet blend that delivers serious sophistication without the serious price tag.

And 95 points from Halliday Wine Companion at this price is only the beginning of the story.

The wine is sourced from Dominique Portet's Gruyere and Coldstream vineyards, two sites particularly well suited to Cabernet-family varieties.

Tasting Notes

Expect a wonderfully aromatic wine showing:

• Blackcurrant and cassis
• Mulberry
• Violets
• Red and black berries
• Cedar
• Subtle tobacco
• Dried herbs
• Fine savoury spice

There's lovely concentration, but this isn't a big, heavy Cabernet.

Instead, it's medium-bodied, fresh and beautifully energetic, with Cabernet providing structure, Merlot bringing softness, Malbec adding energy and Cabernet Franc contributing aromatic freshness.

The tannins are silky and refined, carrying the fruit through a long, vibrant finish.

95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

Halliday reviewer Philip Rich rated the 2024 Fontaine 95 points.

Most tellingly, he regarded it as one of the Yarra Valley's best buys.

At RRP $33, it's very easy to understand why.

More Than Just Cabernet Sauvignon

One important detail for your Shopify listing: Dominique Portet actually labels the wine Fontaine Cabernets, rather than simply Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2024 blend is:

60% Cabernet Sauvignon
29% Merlot
6% Malbec
5% Cabernet Franc

It's a clever blend. Cabernet Sauvignon provides the backbone and blackcurrant character, Merlot rounds out the palate, Malbec adds colour and energy, while Cabernet Franc contributes fragrance and freshness.

The wine was matured for a year in French oak, with the Halliday review noting 15% new French oak.

Trophy-Winning Pedigree

There's another excellent selling point here.

The 2024 Fontaine Cabernets won Best Red Wine in Show at the 2025 Yarra Valley Wine Show.

So you're looking at a wine carrying:

95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion
Best Red Wine in Show – 2025 Yarra Valley Wine Show

For a wine with an RRP of just $33, that's exceptional.

The 2024 Yarra Valley Vintage

The 2024 season started cool and progressed through a mild, even summer. This allowed the Cabernet varieties to ripen gradually, developing bright aromatics, natural freshness and fine tannins.

That slow ripening is evident in the finished wine: there's plenty of flavour, but also excellent freshness and definition.

Food Pairings

Perfect with:

• Roast lamb
• Steak frites
• Beef burgers
• Chargrilled steak
• Roast chicken
• Mushroom dishes
• Hard cheeses

It's polished enough for a serious dinner but approachable enough to become a brilliant midweek red.

Cellaring

This is deliberately made to be enjoyable young rather than requiring years in the cellar.

Drink now for its vibrant blackcurrant fruit and floral perfume, or cellar comfortably through 2030–2032 as the fruit develops more savoury complexity. Halliday's review gives a drinking horizon to 2032.

Why We Love It

This might be one of the best-value Cabernet blends in the Yarra Valley.

You have a highly respected producer, excellent vineyards in Coldstream and Gruyere, classic Bordeaux varieties, thoughtful French oak maturation and a wine that has already received 95 points from Halliday Wine Companion and won Best Red Wine in Show at the 2025 Yarra Valley Wine Show.

But what makes it particularly compelling is the style.

It's not big. It's not overripe. It's not buried under oak.

It's perfumed, juicy, silky and beautifully fresh, with blackcurrant, violets and cedar wrapped around fine Cabernet tannins.

At RRP $33, the 2024 Dominique Portet Fontaine Cabernets seriously over-delivers.

If you're looking for a sophisticated Yarra Valley red that drinks like a considerably more expensive wine, this is one to buy by the dozen.