It’s a Family Affair!
After 26 years, CellarHand is still a family-run business. The ‘bosses’ (as much as they don’t like to be called that) are still that same husband and wife dynamic-duo that decided to “give it a crack” in 1999, starting up operations from their house, their bedroom in fact. And, after 26 years, CellarHand is still a business that prides itself on representing and celebrating some of the greatest winegrowing family businesses from both here in Australia and across the globe.
But this one, this is the O.G. founding family business of the CellarHand portfolio. Patrick and Virginia’s relationship with the Smith-Cullam family of Frankland Estate, is at the very core of the CellarHand soul – and can be credited with why and how CellarHand was born. Judi Cullam was responsible for sealing-the-deal on Patrick’s life-long love affair with Riesling and was an instrumental influence in the wines that were listed in the first CellarHand portfolio, including Frankland Estate as our first Australian Winegrower.
And of course with many family businesses (especially in this industry), comes succession. The 2024 vintage marked 25 years since siblings Hunter and Elizabeth Smith came “home” to work their first harvest together. Back to the place their parents, Judi Cullam and Barrie Smith put their stake in the ground in 1988 and declared this patch of dirt, at the time in the middle of nowhere (and still is, really….), their home and the future for their family.
Fast forward to 2025, those years of tenacity, conviction, dedication and the second generation’s unwavering commitment to pushing boundaries to achieve excellence have Frankland Estate comfortably sitting in the upper echelon of Australian wine. Furthermore, these wines are globally recognised as benchmarks across an immense stream of quality standards and hold true, genuine icon status. So, it is our absolute delight to present to you today, the Frankland Estate Annual Release of 2025, one that is very close to our hearts here at CellarHand. – Nevada Jones, CellarHand
2024 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling $60 RRP
Lime, apple, jasmine tea, something a bit stony and saline too. It has flavour and texture, and while it’s maybe it’s a little less racy in acidity than some releases, it’s still beautifully balanced, and I kind of like the softness and inherent drinkability that comes with that. There’s a little chalky grip, and the finish is juicy, perfumed and long with just a little grapefruit pith bite. It’s distinctive and delightful. Yum. 95 points. Gary Walsh, The Winefront March 2025
Rarely does such a youthful riesling come to the glass with this high level of class and complexity. A lovely melding of the aromatic, the citrus and the apple fruited is here together with a charming spiciness and mouth-wateringly bright acidity. Crab apple, red Delicious apple, lime zest, lemon, citrus, spice, white pepper and ginger mix and play with a lovely delicate fragrance of jasmine. Acidity is always an integral part of Isolation Ridge riesling, bringing both tension and a filigree fine basis for a palate that shines in 2024 with a little more spice, a little more piquancy than usual, and a seemingly less obvious touch of savouriness. It’s a beautiful wine, unforced, naturally in balance, fragrant, enticing and long in flavour. History dictates it will age a treat, but then one taste now also tells you it is ready to go . . . your choice. 96 points. Jeni Port, Wine Pilot
On completion of my first sip, I leant back, crossed my arms, tilted my head, and let out a wry smile—soft and relaxed, like a resting hammock. As always, this wine kills. Leaning further toward savoury characters than the ’23 vintage, I enjoyed the punchy floral prettiness and overall intensity. A bouquet of white peach, tangerine peel, green mango and lime. One of the many parcels sees oak (5% of the total makeup), and the wine spends eight months on lees before bottling—building a slatey texture and complementing the tight framed, puckering acid. Pith, chalk, pressed lavender and mandarin—it’s a fruit salad breakfast in the Mentawai Islands. This is one of Australia’s best-value wines, and once again, Frankland Estate is pushing boundaries in the vineyard and the industry—redefining what Australian Riesling can look like—and they’re doing it from WA. This wine doesn’t need food, but an autumn nectarine salad and poached chicken would pair nicely. 96 points. Cyndal Petty, Wine Pilot
A very exciting dry Riesling with a nose of chamomile, yellow grapefruit, lemon blossoms and fresh garden herbs. Great concentration and textural complexity. The interplay of the fine tannins and pronounced stony minerality with the creaminess from maturation on the lees is beautiful. The touch of grapefruit-pith bitterness accentuates the drive in the long, positively austere finish. 95 points. Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com Feb 2025
2023 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Syrah $60 RRP
What a stunning nose of violets, pepper, dried thyme and forest berries. The combination of freshness, focused fine tannins and concentration on the medium-bodied palate is no less exciting. An extremely long, pure and straight finish with great energy, plus a crushed rock and wild herb character that makes you feel glad to be alive. 96 points. Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com Feb 2025
Between the 15% whole bunch and the garnish of 2% Viognier, the aromatics are stoooooon’n! This wine is confident in her own skin and commands respect wherever she goes. Plum juice, red liquorice and vanilla. I want to protect this wine. Nurture it. Love it. The intense sweetness of fruit, is complimented by small framed, Velcro-like-tannins and encouraged by the 13 months spent in 3500-litre French oak foudre. Medium bodied. Doesn’t need food. Drinking beautifully in its current window of youth. The finish is clean, fresh and sharp—yet the fruit carries effortlessly through the length, with blood orange, Canadian mountains and rose petals. Chic and stylish—this wine drives a 1959 Cadillac. 95 points. Cyndal Petty, Wine Pilot
There is something about the kind of lively spiciness that Isolation Ridge Vineyard always brings to its wines. It’s a potent and exhilarating feature once again in the 2024 syrah with an ever-present, intense black pepperiness on show. Too much? Maybe for some, but for my money it’s showing its cool climate credentials, and it adds a mighty fresh and lively adjunct to the wine’s loganberry, black cherry, blackberry, briar and spice-laden fruits. The pepperiness provides a lot of the energy to the wine. The middle palate is plush in red fruits with a sour cherry tartness together with a whisper of woodsmoke and earthiness. It is nicely finished in firm tannins. 94 points. Jeni Port, Wine Pilot
2023 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Mourvèdre $60 RRP
This is a very fine rendition of Mourvèdre. It’s medium-bodied, dusty and spicy, with fragrant dried herbs, red and blue fruit, liquorice root and dried flower perfume. It feels quite stony and ‘minerally’, some bloody ferrous things, acidity is all just so, and in some ways, it puts me in mind of top shelf German Pinot Noir, which is strange to say, and maybe esoteric, though that’s the kind of feel it has. There’s a little grilled meat, toasted hazelnut, and orange peel, with a bright finish of excellent length. Oh, and the quality of the tannin, I forgot to mention, is so lovely, a sort of fine brick dust texture to it. It’s under-stated, and quite wonderful. 95 points. Gary Walsh, The Winefront March 2025
2022 Frankland Estate Olmo’s Reward $95 RRP
This cabernet franc-based Bordeaux blend has a fascinating array of aromas, from dried mint to wild blackberries, camphor and warm spices. For a cabernet that’s only at the upper edge of medium-bodied, this has a very serious structure. I love the interplay of velvet tannins and a delicate hint of sweetness, all the parts beautifully interlocking. The savory and earthy elements build very nicely in the long, lingering finish. 95 points. Stuart Pigott, JamesSuckling.com Feb 2025
The 2022 Olmo’s Reward represents a cooler season at this estate, which is quite different from the experience of the vineyards to the west and the north of the wine-growing areas in Western Australia for whom it was warm, compacted and dry. In the mouth, the wine is very pretty, floral and fine, with tannins that feel both pliable and yet closely knit (quite like the texture of the Isolation Ridge Syrah, now that I think about it). This is composed, bright and really quite sensational. 95+ points. Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate Nov 2024
As usual, cabernet franc takes the lead role in Olmo’s Reward, but at 90%, it remains one of the highest percentages we have seen in the Bordeaux blend for some time. It is joined by cabernet sauvignon (7.5%) and Mourvèdre (2.5%). The aromatic charm of cabernet franc is on full display with its arresting aromas of briar and rose, pepper and dried herbs with plum and black cherry fruits. It’s a powerfully persuasive wine, it’s also a wine intended for further ageing. The Smith family has found that cabernet franc cellars “spectacularly” well, hence, the promoted role of the grape and, with its pronounced, sandpaper fine tannins, it delivers structure and great potential for age. Not that Olmo’s Reward can’t be enjoyed now, it certainly can. There is a depth of flavour already well in place, medium bodied and expansive in red fruits, crushed herbs, pepper, earth and a spiciness that lifts and engages immediately. 95 points. Jeni Port, Wine Pilot
2023 Frankland Estate SmithCullam Syrah $125 RRP
Blueberry, blackberry, lavender, cracked pepper and grilled meat, toasted nuts, aromatic, yet kind of sultry. It’s medium to full-bodied, dense, packed with dark fruit, a thick seam of coal dust tannin, ferrous and dark, and yet it flashes and crackles with perfume, spice, and deep Shiraz character, and finishes long and saline with dark cherry, black olive and thyme fragrance, along with bright acidity and sooty grip. Textbook Frankland River Shiraz, with a little tip of the hat to the Northern Rhône, maybe. 96 points. Gary Walsh, The Winefront March 2025