Hugh Hamilton The Mongrel Sangiovese 2021
- 91
- $32.50
- Drink by: 2022-2026
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Sangiovese was planted in Australia to much fanfare, as the next big thing. It never quite made it, but the team here have summed it up perfectly – “We got a whole lot better at working with it when we realised that what we want matters very little to this grape”. It does what it wants and when it works, it can be a delicious wine worthy of the reputation it has built in Tuscany. McLaren Vale seems to work as well as anywhere in this country for good Sangiovese. Blood red in colour, with the aromas moving through leather, cherries, animal skins, spices and herbs. It then has some good grip, a nice line of acidity and fine tannins. This should work best if given another year to come together and then is drunk over the next three to four years. Good example of the grape.
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.
