Brown Hill Perseverance Cabernet Merlot 2020
- 94
- $80
- Drink by: 2022-2030
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To identify Margaret River’s best vintage is a bit like trying to identify Sir Don Bradman’s finest innings. Too many fabulous ones from which to make a selection. That said, 2020 in Marg River might just be their version of 334 at Headingly. The grapes for this wine were carefully sorted, before undergoing discrete fermentation in stainless steel fermenters and then transferred to French oak barriques (35% new) for 18 months. The best barrels are then selected for blending. This is deep purple in colour. Nicely balanced, this wine has everything in its place. The nose offers a delightful blueberry note as a highlight, but there is far more to it than that – aniseed, blackberries, coffee grinds, spices, plums and chocolate. There is good focus here in this carefully structured wine with lovely, soft, silky tannins on a lengthy finish. It will drink well for six to eight years with ease.
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.
