Robert Oatley Limited Release Barossa Shiraz 2018
- 97
- $70
- Drink by: 2024-2036
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Always fascinating to compare the same wine from different vintages and the release of these two Barossa Shiraz, from 2017 and this one from 2018, allow us to do just that. As thoroughly impressive as the 2017 is, this wine wins hands down. But then, with 2018 such a superb vintage for the region, that is exactly what you’d expect. The sources of fruit for this wine, and the techniques employed by Larry Cherubino to make it, are the same for both vintages (a mix of vineyards from both the Barossa and Eden Valleys with vines ranging between twenty and sixty years of age, open fermented on skins for 4-6 weeks, and then aged in a mix of new and one-year-old tight-grained, low toast French oak barriques).
The wine is black/purple in colour. There is a gloriously decadent nose, plush with black fruits, black olives and chocolate. Finely balanced with serious concentration, a joy now but if you have good cellaring conditions, twenty years will be a doddle. Seamless, with an ideal acid/fruit balance, velvety tannins and great length, this is a superb Shiraz from a top year. It just oozes chocolate and class.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
