Pertaringa Rifle & Hunt Cabernet Sauvignon McLaren Vale 2024
- 95
- $45
- Drink by: 2026-2046
Share
Warm climate Cabernet Sauvignon? Not something that should really be exciting us too much, but this wine impresses me vintage after vintage. It shows just what can be done from the right site. The name comes from the Pertaringa Vineyard location, on the corner of Rifle Range and Hunt Roads in McLaren Vale, though the Symonds vineyard, which provides fruit, is located in the Whites Valley sub-region of McLaren Vale, giving the wines a coastal influence. Maturation is for fifteen months in a mix of new and older French oak puncheons and hogsheads. Opaque maroon/deep purple, this is a finely crafted, warm climate Cabernet. It really does have exquisite balance throughout and on the nose, we have notes of chocolate, florals, spices, coffee beans, mocha, animal flesh, plums and black fruits. Excellent focus and poise, there is good length through to sleek, satiny tannins and a line of juicy acidity running the full journey. The intensity is maintained throughout. On the palate we see the emergence of hints of tobacco leaf, as well as more black fruits. Love it. Brilliant value. Enjoy this over the next 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.
