Wills Domain Paladin Hill Shiraz 2019
- 93
- $85
- Drink by: 2022-2030
Share
The regime for their top Shiraz follows the familiar pattern to many of the other red wines in the Wills Domain portfolio – whole berries of destemmed fruit are cool fermented, at around 22°C, which the team see as essential to retaining “fruit freshness and allowing for gentle extraction of tannin and flavour”. The wine then spends 10 days on skins and is pumped over twice daily, before being transferred to French Oak barriques.
The colour is deep purple and it is immediately obvious that this is a ripe, plush, concentrated and deeply flavoured wine. Dry herbs, cassis, red fruits and mulberries here. There is also balance and finesse, with signs of early complexity – this will build over the next few years. There is certainly a good future here with excellent length and grippy tannins on the finish. Expect this to age for at least 6 to 8 years and this will surely get better – a fine example of Margaret River Shiraz.
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.
