Thistledown Where Eagles Dare Old Vine Shiraz 2024
- 95
- $95
- Drink by: 2025-2040
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The Eden Valley vineyard providing these grapes is an impressive 550 metres above sea level, hence the name. Those hoping for a connection with Richard Burton/Clint Eastwood from that cracking old movie will remain disappointed, but it is home to our wedgetail eagles. 20% of the fruit, all of which comes from the Mattschloss Vineyard, is placed in whole bunches in a concrete egg. The rest is crushed and placed on top. The wine is then pressed to French oak, 20% of it new, for twelve months. Just 1,102 bottles. A stunning magenta/purple hue, the nose is redolent of wild raspberries, black cherries, plums, leather, dry herbs and tobacco leaves. Early complexity is evident, it has a sleek, supple texture and the structure is seamless with good balance throughout. There is impressive length and silky tannins. This is a fifteen year proposition. Lost to love here.
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.
