Pipoli Campania Aglianico 2010

I cannot sleep tonight. Woke up at about 2.30am and have been stuck ever since. So here I am in the study listening to the wine and also watching a stream of Tottenham Hotspurs cracking come from behind win against Cashchester City - Go you Spurs!!!

But we are here for the wine right. The Pipoli Campania Aglianico 2010 is one of those wines that cannot be likened to anything from the new world. Its not shiraz fruit forward.; its not Cabernet tannins and its not Pinot Noir gamey. Its Aglianico. You just gotta try some.

The nose is a combination of dusty black fruit, olive tapanade and ironstone iodine. The palate follows suit with dusty tannins up front which are quickly followed by a big wash of blackberries while all being held tight by an iodine like acid strip. Real complex but real enjoyable, not to mention a bargain to boot!!!

Drink till 2015
Drink with lamb rago
93
Cork 13.5%v/v $19 Seddon Wine Store

Abbazia Di Novacella Alto Adige Sylvaner DOC 2010

Thinking about this last night reading Christopher Hitchins 'Arguably', I went to school with three Sylvaner's. There, that's today's segue for the wine; short and succinct. Kinda how Christopher would have liked it.

The Abbazia Di Novacella Alto Adige Sylvaner 2010 for more than 4 weeks now has been staring at me while working at Seddon Wine Store, all the while sending telepathic messages to for me to grab my wine knife, remove the foil and pry the cork out - think 'The Shining'. I did this on Thursday night, minus the Jack Nicholson "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", and was like, "Wow. This Good". Again, think Korg in '20,000 Years BC'. So many quotes today.

Anyway, the wine. Golden yellow in the glass with a slight greenish hue. The nose was full of ripe rock melon with the slightest lick of dried green herbs. The palate was just super, with a fine mix of more full rock melon, gentle grapefruit acid and then all of the sudden there was this sudden STOP of flavour. What was next was a great wave of dried green herbs and an almost phenolic impact that pretty much cleaned up all the residual flavour from the primary palate. Just great. End Quote.

Drink with crab mornay
Drink till 2015
94
Quality cork 13%v/v $34 Seddon Wine Store

Kasaura D'Abruzzo Trebbiano DOC 2011

Days like today throw me. You see its not a public holiday, but I'm not at work. I'm not at either of my jobs actually - Seddon Wine Store or Bindi up in the Macedon Ranges. I've trimmed the hedge, mowed the lawn, turned the gravlax (wait till you see it!!) and given Daisy a bath. But it just feels a bit, well you know?

The same thing happened a couple of weeks ago when I tried this beauty; The Kasaura D'Abruzzo Trebbiano DOC 2011. Its a Trebbiano, not something that has gone down well in my humble glassware. Till now. This is such a spankingly good wine. A bit of green garden dried herb something something going on with a lick of soft citrus. The palate starts with a generous amount of glycerol and wax all melded into one. Great start. There is great weight with this wine without any terse astringency, and right at the end is a great lick of lemon curd. Bloody good.

Merry Xmas everyone!

Drink with a classic prawn cocktail
Drink till 2014
93
Screwcap 13%v/v $16 Seddon Wine Store

Prunotto Ochetti Piedmont Nebbiolo d'Alba 2008

My lament is that only one glass gets washed around here these days; Erin only having wine a few days a week, which is cool though. Pitiful lament I know. But its the case so half bottle season it is! The Prunotto Occhetti Piedmont Nebbiolo d'Alba 2008 is all bells and whistles; its really everyhting you love about Nebbiolo, or Barolo for that matter, only its in a little bottle and perfect for one glass - 2 1/2 really. Chicken or the egg meets tomato/potato kind a thing if you get my drift.

Drink with juicy lamb chops
Drink till 2020
96
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $40ish Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

Cascina Morassino Langhe Nebbiolo 2008 DOC

'O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, 
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse 
Without all hope of day.'
John Milton - Samson Agonistes

Not quite the end of the world stuff, but dark nonetheless. The Cascina Morassino Langhe Nebbiolo 2008 DOC appears almost black in the glass with the hue seemingly black also. The nose is all true Nebbiolo with tar steaming off the surface. The palate, like the nose, is again all Nebbiolo with lip smacking tannins and acid all holding tart red fruit in check. No need to wait for the apocalypse to enjoy this.

Drink with osso bucco
Drink till 2020
94
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $50 Blackhearts & Sparrows, Fitzroy North

Produttori Langhe Barbaresco DOC 2009, Piedmont Italy

When it's cold you should drink wine that warms you up; gives you a hug is something I have been known to say in this case at Albert Street Food & Wine. Well this wine does that without giving you a nose bleed due to excessive alcohol. The Produttori del Barbaresco Langhe DOC 2009 from Piedmont is a wine that is oozing in all things sexy that is Barbaresco, which for those not aware surrounds Barolo in Piedmont. Dusty dark red in the glass as on the nose, the palate is all racy tannins and acid up front with a generous lick of tar and juicy black licorice at the back. But it doesn't end there. After about an hour or so in the decanter the wine opens with effortless floral notes of violet and garden herb aroma's. What is even better is the palate shakes off some of those dusty old tannins and effortlessly delivers sumptuous black and blue fruit with an almost earthy feel as well. And like the first sip, gives you gorgeous tar and black licorice at the end. Sexy as!!

Drink with 2 day old cassoulet
Drink till 2029
96
Quality cork 13.5%v/v (unfortunately not available at Albert Street, but in due time, it will make a return to the shelves)

Santa Marta Salusrti Tuscany Montecucco Sangiovese 2004 DOC and my Prickly Moses Beef and Potato Pie's

Vineyards of Santa Marta

There is not more important factor than the weather when it comes to producing great wine. The wine maker can be as famous as they want to be, but if they do not get a decent growing season, you can kiss goodbye all those glowing reviews they had been counting on. The final month is probably the most fraught with stress to the wine maker; when is the right time to pick? Can I leave the fruit out for just one more week? Will that rain band alter its course and miss my fruit?

Just one hot day at the end of the growing season can push the potential alcohol up in fruit by up to 2% which can effectively change the style of wine that was intended to be made. In Tuscany in 2003, the vintage after the hottest on record of 2002, growers were faced with this dilemma in late September with their Sangiovese. Ultra dry and hot weather hit the area in the last week of September and pretty much wiped out the fruit for that year to a lot of growers. So in 2004, growers were so vigilant in this period that they had picking crews on standby if the celsius got over 28°. With added bunch and shoot thinning in this season, 2004 eventuated as the most stressful for some years in Tuscany, but the stress paid off with many saying the 2004 vintage as the best since the great vintage of 1997.

One of the great wines to come out of this vintage is the Santa Marta Salusrti Montecucco Sangiovese 2004 DOC. Yet another gem purchased from Mediterranean Wholesalers in Brunswick, this wine shows all the hallmarks of coming from a superior year, with just a touch of ripeness telling me that they got the fruit of just in time I’d say. This wine however was not an impulse purchase; I needed something that had great acid structure with fine and tart fruit layers in it for my stout chuck steak and potato pie.


Like most meals I prepare, plenty of time is needed as the chuck steak needs about three and half hours to braise with the spuds. So here is how you do it:
· 500 grams of good stewing beef
· Good oil
· 750mL of stout, Prickly Moses for this one
· Water
· Three Desiree potatoes, peeled and diced
· Two cloves of garlic, crushed
· Three shallots, cut fine
· Puff pastry, baked in oven


As I said, the meat needs to be braised for about three and a half hours, so brown the beef in a pot and add stout and water and bring to boil. The mix will head up quite a bit so keep an eye on it. Once it has boiled, bring to simmer and add the remaining ingredients and stir every 15 minutes. Once you have the braise, spoon in to bowls and cover with the pastry. Bake to a desired puffiness.

Imogen in Action.... literally

A good fun thing to do with the kids is to cut out the starting letter of their names in pastry and put it on top of the layer of pastry. This is an easy way to get your children to eat their meal because they have some sort of ownership in the making of it, that’s what happened with Imogen anyway.
Now the wine. Very Sangiovese in the glass, with a clear translucency about it with a ruby red/pinkish hue. The nose is all prickly fir and morello cherry with a little hint of prunes. Very savoury acid in the mouth that builds to red fruit right at the end. This wine also had about 30 minutes in the decanter before dinner.

Like I said, you get a good growing season you get good fruit and in the end good fruit equals good wine, and this Sangiovese is great and a definite Susan with my pie’s.

Drink till 2025
Drink with my stout beef pie
92
Quality cork 13.5%v/v $30 at Mediterranean Wholesalers, Brunswick

The La Luna e I Falò Barbera D’Asti DOC Superiore 2006, Piedmont Italy

Barbera is not a wine that has neither the consumer’s imagination nor their palate. This wine will go a long way in capturing both I reckon. The La Luna e I Falò Barbera D’Asti DOC Superiore 2006 ,which simply translates to the bonfire under the moon ; yet another mouthful I’m blogging about.

I came across this at Mediterranean Wholesalers on Sydney Road Brunswick a month or so ago and was blown away by its depth, and at only $23, have been blown away by it three times since!

The growing season in the north west of Italy in 2006 was near perfect, with a lot of producers having major expectations on their wines and their cellaring prospects. Outstanding fruit quality was achieved with grapes coming in with optimum ripeness with ideal sugar levels.

The La Luna displays a very deep garnet colour with a pinkish/red hue. The nose has great woven layers of oak (Slovenian oak used for this wine), dark red fruits and a good hit of brambly cherry. In the mouth there is a quick hit of acid that buries much of the primary fruit, so decanting will surely help this one. After a while there is an herbal and floral feel about it, with violets and bay leaf coming through. After three hours morello cherry was the primary flavour, and a flavour that was in gorgeous balance with fine grainy tannins.

Super balance, huge length and great complexity; a really good wine this one.

Drink with Coq au vin pie
Drink till 2015
92

Quality cork $23 14% a/v