Alkoomi Blackbutt Cabernet Malbec 2018
- 95
- $67
- Drink by: 2024-2039
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A blend of both Cabernets, Sauvignon (50%) and Franc (25%), with Malbec (25%) in its usual role as a cameo component. Open fermentation with hand plunging thrice daily, followed by twenty months maturation in French oak and then a further four years in bottle before release. An opaque maroon with enticing aromas, notes of blackberries, dry herbs, cloves, chocolate, aniseed and tobacco leaves with a hint of bergamot. Seamless and balanced, there is elegance with power here. Really good. There is great length and an intensity which never waivers. A ten-to-fifteen-year proposition.
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.
