Balancing Heart Alchemy and Art Rock Shiraz 2017
- 89
- $54
- Drink by: 2021 - 2026
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It is always good to see wines from the Granite Belt. It really is the best kept secret in Australian wine (although why the locals should want it to remain such a secret is beyond me). Once, little more than hobby vineyards. this is now a serious region with many excellent wineries, fine wines, and more and more are emerging all the time. Balancing Heart are well placed among them, especially using Mike Hayes, one of Queensland’s finest, as the winemaker.
This wine offers notes of mushrooms, warm earth, dried herbs and spices plus hints of nutmeg/cinnamon. A mid-weight style which tends more to the elegant than forceful end of the spectrum with moderate length. Some early development is evident but there is surely more to come. Drink over the next three to five years.
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.
