Artigiano Sicily Grillo 2012

There is so much to do...

It is now 2014. Usually I will post my top wines of the year either at the end of that year or the very start of the next. Right now there are just too many good wines waiting to find their way on this site and all while I am setting up the Brunswick East Wine Store; this blog must feel like the unwanted mistress right now.

So this will be the first of many short sharp and succinct look at some beauites before I compile the best of 2013.

The Artigiano Sicily Grillo 2012. Bright and briney with layers of preserved lemon and limestone. Its just $15 and quite simply stonkingly good and gluggable. Just get it.

Drink with BBQ baby sardiners
Drink now
95
Screwcap 13%v/v $15 Seddon Wine Store

Mandoleto Sicily Nero d'Avola 2009

It has a pretty label, a pretty nose and a pretty darn good palate. And for about $15 this wine is easily for bargain find of the year. The Mandoleto Sicily Nero d'Avola 2009 is for me the perfect winter fed without the nose bleeding alcohol levels that you can find with some imported Sicilian Nero d'Avola's.

Now Nero d'Avola is very much the raisin de l'année in these parts with plenty of growers in central Vic and the Tobacco Road resurrecting vines planted back when Australia was the destination for thousands of Southern Italian  immigrants back in the 1950's, with people like Chalmers, Pizzini championing Italian varieties.

So to the wine. Quite a deep colour with a purple hue, the nose throws great wafts of blue fruit  a with a touch of garden lavender. The palate is quite tight up front but washes along the tongue to finish with quite a brightness and an almost cooling sensation as well.

For the price, this has gotta' be a no-brainer for any occasion and anytime of the year.

Drink with eggplant parmegania

Drink now

92

Screwcap 13.5% v/v $15 Albert Street Food & Wine soon

Cantina Cellaro Luma Inzolia/Chardonnay 2010, Sicily Italy

This came across my bow about a month ago and from the first whiff and sip I was hooked. Massive fan. Huge!

On a segue, do you remember that corny wine commercial for Nottage Hill from the 90's where one of the two nimrods keeps saying, '... it's not-taa, it's not-taaa...' Basic proviso is that he couldn't pick A) the aroma and B) what type of wine it is. Well this sort of happened with the Cantina Cellaro Luma Inzolia/Chardonnay IGT 2010. I could get the shot of grapefruit citrus burst, but I was searching for the Inzolia - the native white variety from Sicily - and couldnt pick it, but you get that sometimes.

Like I said, a great burst of grapefruit and raw lick of minerality; the river stone type of minerality, with beautiful and pristine acidity that doesnt get out of control. Very austere and pure, and just a pleasure to drink. Just love it!!

Drink with spagetti and prawns
Drink till 2014
97
Diam cork 13.5%v/v $32 Albert Street Food & Wine, Brunswick

Saturday bliss

Marintaed white anchovies from Gervasi on Sydney Rd. From the pen of Jon Bon Jovi, they are slippery when wet and washed down with a beer too boot! Just bliss.

Wine Fact #1 - Shiraz or Syrah?

Be it pocket vintage guides, portable argon sprays or downloadable apps to your iPhone or Blackberry, wine and wine talk is everywhere – a true Planet of the Grapes you may say. And with all of this wine talk comes wine lingo – MLF, oxygenation, reverse osmosis and on and on and on! There is so much to know about the little grape that makes fermented juice that can fetch upwards of $50K.

So what I propose to do is borrow the ‘wine fact’ concept derived by James May in “Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure” and now and then share something that I may know and you may not; some may be true, some may be a little true. And without further adieu here is my first Wine Fact!

Q: Where does the word ‘Syrah’ come from?
A: We all know that Syrah and Shiraz are effectively the one grape, this much is known. But why use different words? A long, long time ago in a place called Persia there was this town called Shiraz where they had this grapevine that magically produced a red drink that made everything and everyone seem ridgy-didge! One day some people came walking down the Silk Road and suggested that they might take some of the grapevine back to their neck of the woods – Europe – and try and do it justice. So off they travelled back up the Silk Road and boarded a ship in a Byzantine port and headed off with Poseidon’s blessing. Soon they came across some land and decided to dock for a while in the port, and the port was called Siracusa on the island of Sicily.


So long story short, the name syrah comes from the port city of Siracusa, the first city in Western Europe to propagate the Shiraz vitis vinifera – they just added an ‘h’ for posterity.

And that,as James May would say, is a wine fact!

Firriato Altavilla Della Corte Grillo 2008, Sicily

In the never ending pursuit of finding that special wine that has yet to be accepted by the mainstream, I think I may have come across a wine that just fits that niche; the Firriato Altavilla Della Corte Grillo 2008, Sicily. Now, for those who are unsure, the grape here is Grillo.

I did a little reading on this grape and it turns out that Grillo is the preferred grape for the production of Marsala because Grillo is able to climb to quite high sugar levels if it is left to 'grill' to over-ripeness. If required to, Grillo may be left on the vine until the end of September (northern hemisphere growing season), by which time in a normal year the grapes will be very rich in sugar - upwards of 16-18%, and therefore low acid levels too.

I happened across this wine at the always value for money Mediterranean Wholesalers on Sydney Road Brunswick, and for a mere $14, a deadset no-brainer. This wine however is not made in the Marsala style, so acid in this wine is quite present. Quite a bone/straw colour in the glass, the nose throws subtle pear with little else. It is in the mouth, however, that this wine comes up trumps. More pear, this time a more grainy feel of pear, with lip smacking acid in the form of citrus - pink grapefruit comes to mind - and right at the back some more pear, this time a little sweet which came as a bit of a surprise. All in all though, a ripper of a wine.

Drink with potato pizza with anchovies

Drink till 2012

90

Cork 13%v/v $14 from Mediterranean Wholesalers, Sydney Road Brunswick