Mitchell Wines McNicol Shiraz Clare Valley 2009
- 95
- $60
- Drink by: 2021-2035
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Blended from a number of top sites from around the Clare Valley, with the aim being to select grapes best suited to ageing, the wine was fermented with natural yeasts, mostly in whole bunches, and then aged in tight-grained 500 litre French oak barrels for twenty four months. The wine then sits in bottle in the Mitchell cellars until they determine it is ready for release. Wine lovers should really take advantage of these older releases – they are not that common and few are as well priced.
For those wondering, the ‘McNicol’ is from Andrew Mitchell’s father – Peter McNicol Mitchell.
The colour here is a deep maroon. Even though there is certainly complexity present, the wine is still amazingly fresh and bright. It certainly belies its age and still has plenty of time ahead of it, if wanted. The flavours here are chocolate, plums, spices, black fruits and red cherries. Good balance right through to fine, silky yet slightly chewy tannins. It exhibits really good length and surprising power. This is a superb, mature, complex example of a Clare Shiraz, one which still has a future.
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.
