Zonte’s Footsteps Lake Doctor Langhorne Creek Shiraz 2020
- 93
- $30
- Drink by: 2022-2032
Share
Like any cricket fan, I am familiar with the Fremantle Doctor but I’ll confess that the Lake Doctor was new to me. Apparently, it is the local name for the breezes which come all the way from Antarctica, over the Great Southern Ocean, to revive the vineyards (and I suspect vineyard workers) facing the heat of summer. Forgive me flogging the proverbial dead horse but Langhorne Creek is such an underrated region for delicious, generous, top value reds. This is further evidence of that.
Deep blood red in colour with notes of spices, chocolate, animal hides, herbals, dry vegetation, red fruits, warm earth, charcuterie and more. The wine is well balanced, supple of texture, full of richness of flavour, finishing with satiny tannins and excellent length. The team suggest drinking it with “anything off the grill (preferably charcoal that is)”. Love this wine now but it will surely improve over time. If you can hold off for three or four years, even better, but don’t be afraid to put a case in the cellar for a decade.
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.
