Ulithorne ‘Paternus’ Coonawarra/McLaren Vale Cabernet Shiraz 2019
- 96
- $85
- Drink by: 2022-2042
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We have moved to a diam closure here, rather than the usual screwcap. The bottle is of such weight that you might need to alert Health and Safety! It continues this estate’s impressive presentation. This is a blend of 88% Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon from a single vineyard on terra rossa soil, which receives 10 days skin contact; and 12% McLaren Vale Shiraz from the Blewitt Springs sub-region. That vineyard is ‘sand over clay’. The winemaking incorporates small batch ferments, 15 days skin contact, 12 months oak maturation, then blending and a further 6 months maturing.
The colour is a very dark maroon. The immediate aromas are of dried herbs, warm earth and then a sweet core of black cherries and chocolate. Full-flavoured and concentrated, the wine is impressively balanced. It really picks up on the palate. Good acidity runs the full length of the wine. It is certainly delicious now, but it needs time to really show its full glories. A serious wine, it has ten to twenty years ahead of it. Big, bold and impressive.
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.
