Schubert Estate The Hatchling Shiraz 2018
- 92
- $32
- Drink by: 2021 - 2027
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There are few more famous names in Australian wine than Schubert. Max Schubert was chief winemaker for Penfold’s when he came up with the concept of Grange, the first Aussie wine which made the world sit up and take notice of what we could do. There have been plenty since, a hefty percentage of them made from shiraz and hailing from the Barossa. I gather Max Schubert was not closely related to the Schuberts from this estate but I’m sure he’d enjoy their wines.
‘The Hatchling’ is what people term their entry level wine (though it seems to me that this is merely applied to whatever is the cheapest wine in the portfolio, whether it cost two dollars or two hundred), even when it comes from such a stellar vintage as 2018. It seems an unfair label for a wine so compelling. This wine comes from the estate’s hand-picked shiraz. It is destemmed and fermented in 5 tonne open top fermenters with twice daily pumpovers. After fermentation, the wine was basket pressed. The free-run juice and the pressings were blended into older French oak barriques for 15 months.
The colour is deep purple. There are spices, cloves and floral notes. Liquorice and ouzo, chocolate and black fruits, blackberries and leather. Seamless style with abundant but soft tannins and excellent length, the wine offers a pleasing mix of the old fashioned and modern aspects of what winemaking can provide. Should continue to excite for at least the next half dozen years. Lots to like.
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.
