Yalumba Octavius Barossa Old Vine Shiraz 2018
- 96
- $150
- Drink by: 2023-2043
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A famous wine which, fortunately, does not receive quite the extended oak treatment it once did. From Barossa vines dating back to 1854, maturation is in Yalumba-coopered oak octaves – 21 months in a mix of 25% new French barriques and hogsheads and the remainder in one-year and older French octaves (which are 100-litre oak barrels), barriques and hogsheads. It is now one of the few wines to be available through the La Place de Bordeaux system, reserved for the world’s finest. Black cherry hue. This is still very young and needs a good four to six years before it is likely to come into its own. Then it should offer fifteen to twenty years of pleasure, for the patient. There is still plenty of oak evident at this early stage, but it is integrating well, if slowly, showing good concentration, power and intensity. At this early stage, it is still a bit of a bruiser but a finely balanced one and a wine which shows every sign that the transformation, when it comes, will be very exciting. Seamless and with fine tannins, there is excellent length and it unfurls blackcurrants, raspberries, cranberries, mocha, hot chocolate, beefstock and floral notes on the palate.
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.
