Pertaringa Stage Left Merlot 2023
- 92
- $32
- Drink by: 2024-2028
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For the Merlot fans amongst us, this wine is proving itself to be a most reliable offering, year after year. From a single block in the Tatachilla sub-region of McLaren Vale, planted in 1990, the wine spent eight days on skins, followed by maturation in older French oak for ten months. Dark red/maroon in colour, the nose offers dried herbs, plums, bay leaves, plum pudding, red cherries with hints of vanilla and nutmeg. Silky tannins and good length here, this will provide pleasure for at least the next three to four 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.
