Clandestine Vineyards McLaren Vale Shiraz 2019
- 95
- $28
- Drink by: 2020 - 2030
Share
Oh my, this is a beautiful shiraz that captures so much about the Blewitt Springs subregion of McLaren Vale. Not your usual McLaren Vale fruit bomb, but a wine with grainy texture and finesse. I love the power and the intensity but it’s the way it delivers with a degree of understatement. The winemaking has been a significant contributor with the decision to go with handpicking, basket pressing and then some pinot like whole bunch addition. And finally, the oak is old, so it doesn’t intrude on the excellent fruit although a smidgeon of new oak has been used to spice things up. It finishes with a slightly savoury liquorice and cherry character.
Ray Jordan has been writing about wine for more than 40 years. His first articles were published in the early issues of national wine magazine Winestate in the late 1970s when he worked in Sydney as a newspaper correspondent. From 1989 Ray wrote more than 3000 columns as a regular newspaper wine columnist. He currently writes a regular column for the special business publication Business News and is one of the main contributors to national wine platform Wine Pilot. In 2017 Ray co-authored The Way it Was – A History of The Early Days of the Margaret River Wine Industry and previously wrote Wine in the Blood: Australia’s Family Wine Estates, published in Mandarin and English. In 2011 Ray was awarded WA Wine Press Club Jack Mann Memorial Medal for his contribution to the WA wine industry. His love of wine is as strong as his love of the blues and tasting the thousands of wines that cross his bench each year allows him to indulge in both.
