Château Tanunda The Château Merlot 2024
- 92
- $40
- Drink by: 2025-2032
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Barossa Merlot may not present itself as we would expect from a Right Bank Bordeaux, but that does not mean it can’t be an absolutely delicious red. Also worth noting is that for this sort of money, your chances of finding anything from Bordeaux’s Right Bank that will come close to this wine in terms of quality are slim to zero. Specifically from the Tscharke Vineyard, the wine spent ten months maturing in a combination of new and older French oak barrels. The colour is a vibrant magenta with notes of undergrowth, raspberries, mushrooms, plums, dried herbs, beef stock, chocolate and cherries and a veritable spice kitchen on the nose. The wine really lifts on the palate, which is sleek and focused – the choc cherry notes emerging even more. A wine with fine tannins and a lingering finish, it will drink well over the next five to seven years, during which period it would not be unreasonable to expect the score to rise.
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.
