Elderton Ashmead Cabernet Sauvignon 2023
- 95
- $125
- Drink by: 2025-2029
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Year in, year out, this is always one of the Barossa’s most exciting Cabernets and this latest release is no different. Stellar stuff. The wine spent eighteen months in French oak. An opaque maroon with a dark red rim, this is still very young. Lovers of flavoursome Barossa reds would do themselves a favour by holding off for three or four years, after which enjoy it for the next twenty. There is a flick of vanilla from the well-handled oak, still in the process of integration, along with notes of chocolate, bay leaves, black cherries, soy, leather, dried herbs, blackcurrants and coffee grinds. As appealing as the nose is, the wine lifts on the palate. It is impeccably balanced with a sleek, juicy texture and fine, silky tannins. The wine has seriously impressive length.
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.
