Lone Palm Hillside Barossa Valley Shiraz 2023
- 93
- $120
- Drink by: 2025-2037
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The fruit used here comes from the heart of the Barossa Valley, a west-facing hillside vineyard in the Marananga sub-region. Maturation was for a year and a half in a mixture of American and French oak. The colour is a vibrant purple, promising much. This is full throttle black-fruited, but with a well-crafted overlay of oak. There are aromas of dried herbs, plums, mocha, mulberries, chocolate, coffee beans and graphite. A smooth and seductive palate with concentration and power. Tight as a drum at the moment, but one senses it is keen to burst out and show all its glories. Very good length with silky tannins and a lingering finish. Ten to twelve 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.
