Sevenhill Inigo Barbera 2022
- 92
- $30
- Drink by: 2023-2029
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A friend of mine recently declared, ‘how can you not love Barbera? It would be like not loving puppies’. I’ll confess I was a bit on the fence about the variety until a recent visit to Piedmont showed me how wrong I was and how good a decent Barbera can be. Local examples may not quite have got there yet, but they are well on the way. This one, from the Clare Valley, is matured in tank with a small percentage also matured in new French hogsheads. Dark crimson in colour, we have notes of dry herbs, warm earth, mushrooms, animal skins and red currants. There is good acidity running the length and bright flavours on the palate. Thanks to fine tannins and excellent length, this is a very elegantly structured Barbera, as lovable as any puppy. Drink now and for four to five 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.
