Greenock Creek Third Estate Shiraz 2023
- 95
- $90
- Drink by: 2026-2041
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This is from a single site in the Moppa sub-region in the Barossa Valley, which is planted to the R6 clone of Shiraz, also known as the Tahbilk clone, which has been grafted onto Viognier rootstocks. The team do believe that this gives a hint of stone fruit to the wine. The wine undergoes a cold fermentation and is basket-pressed into American oak for maturation for a year and a half. 1/3rd of the oak is new. Under cork. 2,400 bottles made. Black/maroon in colour with a bruised plum rim. There is real plushness here. Good freshness and energy matched with beautifully handled oak. A wine that is dense but dancing. That oak gives us notes of Madagascan vanilla along with the aromas of blackberries, mocha, plums, coffee beans, cocoa powder and licorice. The wine is an intriguing combination of silk and savoury. Finally balanced with serious length, there is an exciting mix of sleek and ever-so-slightly sandy tannins. This is a cracker. A 15-year proposition without hesitation.
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.
