Hentley Farm The Quintessential Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2024
- 94
- $74
- Drink by: 2026-2051
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An excellent example of the great Aussie red blend from the Barossa Valley, the split is 55% Shiraz and 45% Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit came from blocks in the Seppeltsfield Vineyard. The grapes were destemmed before fermentation and then spent a year and a half in French oak for maturation, 20% of which was new. An opaque maroon core with a crimson rim, aromas weave through notes of roast meats, chocolate, graphite, warm earth, blackcurrants, bay leaves and a character reminiscent of ferrous soil. This is seamless, very long and impressively structured. A cracking red blend finishing with abundant but rather satiny tannins, it should drink beautifully for the next twenty to twenty-five years.
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.
