Purple Hands Old Vine Barossa Shiraz 2019
- 92
- $30
- Drink by: 2021 - 2030
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The team at Purple Hands, Craig Stansborough and his partner, Mark Slade, look to the southern part of the Barossa around Williamstown, for their shiraz. Winemaking will be variations on a theme with a small percentage of whole bunch inclusion, open fermenters, a mix of yeasts including indigenous ones, gentle extraction, basket-pressing and then time, 18 months, in a mix of new and more mature French oak.
Dark purple, near opaque. Spices, chocolate and black fruits with very good integration of oak. Mulberries, leather, black olives then soft tannins here and decent length. Overall terrific flavours backed by bright acidity. Five to six years and then this should plateau for many more. If one had a quibble, it would be that the long finish does lack a smidge of intensity, but for this price, you can hardly expect Grange. This is a really good drink and cracking value.
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.
