Kilikanoon Ashton 1920 Mataro 2022

A wine that highlights the Mataro grape’s high individuality and ability to be outstanding in its own right without its usual mates, Shiraz and Grenache. The grape – aka, Mourvèdre – was planted in 1920 on the single block, dry grown Ashton Vineyard, and with its old vine status and rich, concentrated fruit, it brings a touch of history as well as a wonderful complexity to the glass. A well composed wine, pure and deep in flavour with a host of berries – blackberry, blueberry, plum – with chocolate, black olive, spice, coffee grounds and hints of charcuterie with a light smokiness and well managed oak and tannin. Hints of sage are laced throughout, an engaging feature. It’s not a shouter but rather is going about it business of presenting a wine – a deep and sustained version of Mataro – that will age with beauty and grace.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic