Elderton Command Shiraz 2022
- 97
- $150
- Drink by: 2025-2050
Share
I’ve been looking forward to this wine, ever since I tasted the previous vintage – both are superb Barossa years. Would it, could it, match the majestic 2021? It was always going to be an immensely difficult task, but at this early stage, it comes ever so close. In the years to come, it will be fascinating to watch the pair. The fruit comes from a vineyard planted back in 1894. The wine spends time in a mix of French and American oak. An opaque maroon, this is fresh and energetic, with good focus. There is quality oak, well into integration. The nose exhibits notes of chocolate, blackberries, florals, coffee beans, mocha, aniseed and plums. Ideally balanced with great length, the wine finishes with the silkiest of tannins. Perhaps more classically structured than the 21, which offered more plushness, but there is such promise here. A cracker. Twenty to twenty-five years of pleasure ahead. In the pantheon of great Barossa Shiraz, this is sensational value.
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.
