Cape Mentelle Shiraz Icon 2018
- 95
- $98
- Drink by: 2023-2038
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From a mix of vineyards – Trinders, Crossroads and Chapman – the wine has 2% Viognier included, which was co-fermented. It also includes 14% 2019 material (perfectly legal, of course, and designed to add complexity and freshness). Native yeasts used too. Maturation was for a total of 19 months, in 86% French oak and 14% Hungarian, 71% was new. This is a powerful, concentrated wine. Inky dark maroon in colour, we have notes of dark chocolate, beefstock, smoky black fruits, most especially black currants. Finely focused, the finish exhibits tannins, lots of them, but silky. Really good length here too with notes of roast meats on the palate. Give it five years and then revel in a cracking Marg River Shiraz for the following ten to fifteen 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.
