Purple Hands After Five Wine Co. Aglianico 2023
$40, 14.5% alcohol, screwcap, Barossa Valley.
This is very good. It’s a rusty, rustic, berried wine with spice notes aplenty and a long, sound, satisfying finish. It’s both medium-weight and refreshing, but then it’s well-balanced and characterful too. Red licorice flavours are a highlight, as is subtle vanillin oak, as is a spread of fine-grained tannin. This is an absolute yes. 94 points.
Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He founded The Winefront, is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion (and former editor of Halliday magazine), and is the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He is 100% independent, and tastes between 5,000 and 10,000 wines each year, blind and in comparative brackets as often as is practicable.
Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.
