O’Leary Walker The Sleeper Shiraz 2024
- 95
- $90
- Drink by: 2026-2046
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The team at O’Leary Walker have recently released two prestige examples of their Shiraz. I know that conventional wisdom would suggest one should prefer the more expensive of the pair, and in fairness it was very much a wafer-thin difference, but this was my pick. From the oldest vineyard block at Williamstown in the Barossa Valley, planted in 1946 and called ‘Doraminna’, it has always been a dry grown and low yielding vineyard. 2024 is a very fine vintage, reflected by the fact that this is only the 4th release of this wine since they first made it, back in 2003. The team use natural yeast for fermentation. The wine has a maroon/black core with a very dark purple rim. The nose exhibits aromas of plums, blackberries, licorice, chocolate, coffee beans, cassis, charcoal and hints of recently extinguished campfires. The oak integration has been deftly handled. There is good focus and serious length, right through to satiny tannins. The wine has a most alluring plushness. It is utterly delicious and should easily handle twenty years in a good cellar.
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.
