Oliver’s Taranga Ihana 2022
- 97
- $80
- Drink by: 2024-2044
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Only 5,000 bottles are made of the Oliver’s premium red, a stunning McLaren Vale Shiraz given the Finnish name ‘Ihana’, which translates as wonderful. For someone who loves Finland, I could not be more excited – even more so as it is such a thrilling wine. Opaque maroon, this is intense, well balanced and showing some very early complexity. Florals, chocolate, leather, tar, cloves, dry herbs and mocha notes. A richly flavoured, generous and supple McLaren Vale Shiraz with good extraction, impressive intensity and incredible length. And yet, perhaps a little surprisingly, the wine still has elegance. For me, this just might be the best wine Corrina and her team have made. It would certainly be a contender. Fifteen to twenty 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.
