The winery was founded by David Hohnen, a third-generation farmer who studied wine making and viticulture in California in the 1960s, and his brothers Mark and Giles.

[1] Cape Mentelle is one of the ‘founding five’ wineries in Margaret River, was established in 1970, and came to prominence by winning the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy in 1983 and 1984 for their Cabernet sauvignon.

[2] David, Mark and Giles experimented in a rammed earth shed for six years until producing their first Cabernet sauvignon in 1976[3] The brothers worked with Tom Cullity, the founder of the first Margaret River winery Vasse Felix in 1967 to help produce their award-winning Cabernets of 1983 and 1984.

[3] In 1983 and 1984, Cape Mentelle won the Jimmy Watson Memorial Award for the best one-year old dry red wine.

[4] In 2010, Cape Mentelle was the first winery in the Margaret River to attain the Entwine accreditation (total sustainable winegrowing Australia).