Thorn-Clarke Barossa Single Vineyard Shiraz 2017
- 95
- $110
- Drink by: 2022-2034
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This wine is named in honour of Ron Thorn. The big, heavy bottle and grand labelling might bring certain expectations, but this wine has other notions. It’s starting its journey and it’s calling for your interest early on. Frankly, it’s years away from revealing all, but we are granted a small window through which to appreciate its beauty, its potential. I like these kind of wines, they don’t lay everything out on a platter for the drinker, they call out for your interest. It won’t be to everyone’s liking. It will divide opinion and tastebuds. It’s a reminder of Barossa Shiraz from the past. There is a ripe boldness. Tannins aren’t shy, neither is the smoky, barbecue oak. Or alcohol. It’s a slow burn, definitely. That said, it demands attention with its blackberry, brambly fruits, boiled fruit cake with plums, chocolate, ginger, savoury oak, mint/eucalypt, touch of Moroccan spices. As I was saying, it’s an interesting wine . . . in a good way. Give it its head and some time.
Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.
