Kilikanoon Duke Reserve Grenache 2018
- 95
- $55
- Drink by: 2021-2031
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This is a wine which has everything going for it – and it delivers accordingly. Picked from two discrete old vine Grenache vineyards in the Watervale sub-region – aged 74 and 80 years – which are dry-farmed, hand-pruned and hand-picked. The parcels are selected “for power and elegance”. Winemaking sees the use of small open fermenters and an extended period on skins. Basket pressing into older French oak of varying formats for fifteen months.
A deep crimson red with spices, hints of chocolate, tobacco leaf, rose petals, black fruits, cherries and leather on the nose. There is complexity here, good intensity and yet the balance is retained. A silky texture through to velvety tannins. Good length. This is delicious now but will easily impress over the next decade. A cracking Grenache.
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.
