O’Leary Walker Pinotage 2022
- 92
- $30
- Drink by: 2023-2027
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A South African speciality which we rarely see in Australia (at the very least, pick up a bottle for the next blind tasting evening with your wineloving friends). The vines here, from a vineyard in the Clare Valley, are six years old. The wine spent 9 months in seasoned French oak. Jack Walker, the next generation, is the winemaker. A deep, dark red hue, the nose offers an array of dry herbs, red fruits, florals, warm earth, raspberries and a hint of rustic fungals. Dense, with balance, this is a wine of medium length, which should provide much pleasure over the next 2 to 4 years. Lots to love and very promising for the future of Pinotage in Australia.
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.
