Bec Hardy Pertaringa Shiraz 2024
- 92
- $22
- Drink by: 2025-2035
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Great buying here with this McLaren Vale Shiraz, very much a crowd pleaser and a value buy. The fruit hails from two vineyards in the region, an equal split from each. One of the vineyards is the Rayner Block, a name many wine lovers will know and love. Each parcel was made discreetly, maturing in a mix of French and American hogsheads for ten months, before blending and bottling. An opaque purple in colour, the nose exhibits notes of sage, tobacco leaves, black fruits, cassis, plums and ripe cherries. The wine is dense but dancing. It has focus, a slippery texture, sleek tannins and very good length, with the intensity and flavours maintained for the full journey. Enjoy this any time over the next decade, during which it is certain to improve and likely merit a higher score. Cracking value.
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.
