Curator Wines Seppeltsfield Vineyard Shiraz 2022
- 97
- $60
- Drink by: 2024-2044
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For me, this is the absolute star of the range, among some serious competition. From a vineyard at Seppeltsfield, which was planted back in the 1950s, the wine saw 18% of whole bunches (the remainder whole berries) in the ferment – a natural fermentation – before it was pressed to French oak, 15% new, for maturation over the next year and a half. Only 2,100 bottles sealed under diam. A near opaque maroon hue here, the aromas swirl around giving us characters reminiscent of plush new leather, chocolate, tar, mocha, ripe plums, graphite, licorice, bay leaves and blueberries. A creamy texture leading to fine, supple tannins, this is a wine of great length which never waivers in intensity. A twenty year proposition. Just gorgeous.
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.
