Château Tanunda The Château Barossa Valley Shiraz 2019
- 93
- $38
- Drink by: 2021-2031
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Wine years are a bit like dog years – and I have no real idea how they work either, just that they are different. If we look to calculate in wine years, to establish a reputation the equal of what Château Tanunda has achieved should take a lot of them. And even more in our years. The team here have somehow managed to condense time. What an achievement!
Another single vineyard wine, this time from Vine Vale. Basket pressing gives over to 18 months of maturation in French oak. The end result is a cracking wine, which represents fabulous value. An opaque black/purple, this is a ripe, rich, soft, quintessential Barossa Shiraz. Load up! Chocolate, plums, spices, blackberries and tobacco leaf, this is already hinting at the complexity to follow. Well crafted, with good focus and abundant, reasonably fine tannins, the intensity is maintained throughout the very long finish. A lovely chocolatey note emerges at the end. A wine which is a joy now, but has serious potential.
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.
