The 1989 Howard Park Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot includes for the first time 5% Merlot from the Margaret River region. In its youth the wine was a very soft and opulent wine that reached its peak earlier than the preceding wines. Now the 1989 looks considerably older than the ’86, ’87 and ’88 with significant browning and development characteristics. Choc minty fruits with lovely cigar box aged characters in a stately and gentle wine. The fruit is drying out in the 1989 and it is not recommended to cellar this wine much longer.