Tyrrell’s Rufus Stone Heathcote Shiraz 2019
- 93
- $25
- Drink by: 2021-2031
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While the history of Tyrrell’s wines and the Rufus Stone goes back a depressing twenty-five years (I say, depressing, as I am old enough, just, to remember when it began), the link goes a little further. According to legend, around a thousand years ago, King William II, known as Rufus, was killed by “an errant arrow” fired by Sir Walter Tyrrell, ancestor to today’s famous winemaking family (I’m a bit surprised to learn that there were any descendants if the family knocked off a King – regicide was not traditionally met with mercy). Apparently, the Rufus Stone marks the spot. It is also the named attached to their Heathcote Shiraz.
The result is, of course, a very different style of Shiraz to their much-loved Hunter examples. The wine spent eighteen months maturing in a mix of oak, 20% new. The colour is a magenta/purple. A lovely plush nose with lifted aromas of dark cherry and licorice, plums and raspberries. A soft palate with gentle tannins, although no question that this is a full-throttle wine with flavours out the wahzoo. Excellent length and a wine which lingers beautifully with delightful cassis notes on the finish. Delicious now but will easily see out, and improve, during the next decade if you prefer.
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.
