Wolf Blass Black Label 2018
- 98
- $130
- Drink by: 2024 - 2040
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For me, even though this does not boast quite the same lofty price tags as the Platinums, it is my pick of the range from 2018 – an absolute cracker and loved everything about it. A blend of Barossa, Langhorne Creek and McLaren Vale, so textbook Blass, this shows deep reds and purples. Spices, chocolate, ripe notes, blackfruits, coffee beans. Oak, but it is so well integrated that one hardly notices it. Balanced, complex, concentrated and lingering. This is seamless, plush and so wonderfully textural. So much of interest here. Great length, great future and just love that texture with the tannins silkier than in the Platinum Shiraz, plus juicy acidity. This has everything and shows just how good 2018 can be.
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.
