Tag Archives: Italy

April 3, 2013 · 7:13 pm

Planeta – 8/05/2012

Carricante 2011
Comes from the Etna estate, and includes a very tiny but important percentage of riesling. On the nose it had a touch of apricot kernel and green olive over the vibrant peach blossom, and on the palate was elegantly fresh, balanced and restrained with an interesting texture that I guessed came from the altitude (870 m above sea level) and the different soil composition.

La Segreta Rosso 2011
Made from fruit coming from the Menfi and Noto estates, and is a blend of 50% nero d’avola, 25% merlot, 20% syrah and 5% cabernet franc. Smelling the wine made me immediately think of Bolognese pasta sauce, with lovely ripe red tomatoes, dried basil, and very subtle roasted meat, combining with the plum and blackberry fruits, and on the palate was generous and soft in tannins with good focus and freshness of acids, a very uncomplicated but high-quality entry-level wine.

Cerasuolo di Vittorio DOCG 2010
A lovely light and brilliant vermillion colour, had very pure and intense aromas of florals and sweet red fruit, and on the palate combined delicate spicy red earth with vibrant yet light and fresh personality.

Santa Cecilia 2007
100% nero d’avola coming from the Noto sub-region, which is the reputed home of the variety. Quite dark and full in both colour and character, showing sweet plum and myrtle elements, great power yet elegance, freshness with generous and juicy tannins. The most appealing thing about this wine was the well-handled oak (none new), which better expressed the nuances of the variety and site.

The tasting room at the Planeta Vittoria estate

The tasting room at the Planeta Vittoria estate

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April 3, 2013 · 7:03 pm

Morgante – 9/05/2012

Morgante Nero d’Avola 2010
A nose of sweet juicy blackcurrants and blackberries, with very plummy and sweet oak notes too, whilst on the palate was very unctuous and rich, introducing chocolate and cassis elements, mellowness boldness and slightly spicy.

Don Antonio 2009
Had similar fruit characters but in a more serious vein, and also showed violets and earthy characters on the nose, whilst on the palate was both toasty and succulent, showing balance, integration of oak and alcohol with fruit, and dense tannin structure.

The two wines made by Morgante

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April 3, 2013 · 6:53 pm

Donnafugata – 10/05/2012

The entry level white wines (Anthilia and Vigna di Gabri) were fresh, light and crisp with good vibrancy, texture and clean fruit.

Lighea 2011 (100% dry moscato d’Alexandria)
Classicly intense moscato nose of roses, musk and turkish delight, but was very clean, fresh and zippy on the palate.

Chiaranda 2008 (50% insolia, 50% chardonnay)
A very ripe tropical pineapple nose showing malolactic and oak characters, and on the palate was very rich, fat, creamy and crunchy, in a Californian style which was style a reflection of Sicily.

Sherazade 2010 (100% nero d’avola)
Notes of red currants, plums and slight spice on the nose, and juicy fresh red fruits and delicate earth notes on the palate with some great mellowness of tannins.

Tancredi 2008
Cabernet sauvignon-led wine which had a very familiar nose of cassis and tobacco, and whilst very oaky wasn’t as tannic as I expected, quite tight and firm without much extension on the palate.

Mille Euna Notte 2007 (90% nero d’avola)
Wonderfully dense earthy black olive, dark cherry, blood plum and violet aromas, and on the palate showed elegance and restraint whilst having concentration and uncluttered structure.

Kabir Moscato di Pantelleria 2010
Very fresh and bright with vibrant fruits, but also was quite complex with some sea salt and nutmeg elements, and reminded me of a good moscato d’asti without the bubbles.

Ben Rye Passito di Pantelleria 2009
Wonderful nose of treacle, tea, caramel, Arabic smoke and rose-water, and had wonderfully concentrated oxidative complexity. On the palate it showed the raisined fruit character well, with dried apricots, walnuts and almonds, but still had plenty of freshness to it.

Barrels in the cellars of Donnafugata

Barrels in the cellars of Donnafugata

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April 3, 2013 · 6:44 pm

Planeta – 11/05/2012

Brut Metodo Classico 2010
Made entirely from carricante in its indigenous area of Etna,  fresh, fruit-driven with slightly spicy and peppery notes on the nose combining with the golden delicious and citrus notes, and on the palate was brisk with good persistent bead.

Alastro 2011
Made entirely from grecanico grown at the Ulmo estate. Quite viognier-like, with apricot blossom and citrus, freshness and viscosity with good approachable acids.

Alastro 2010
More closed and had a honey and seashell element on the nose, with salty complexity and elegance.

Cometa Fiano 2010
A very ripe tropical nose coupled with an oily salty citrus complexity, with fantastic texture and depth and great breadth of oak.

Rosé 2011
Made entirely from syrah grown on the Menfi estate. Bright fresh raspberry and cherry notes, full flavoured and vibrant with good acids and some slight fruit-sweetness.

Plumbago 2010
100% nero d’avola from Ulmo, and whilst full and deep in dark fruit characters, also had very fresh spiciness and bright tannins and acids.

Passito di Noto 2010
Was surprisingly light and clean, with very minimal sweetness and viscosity from the drying of the berries and residual sugar.

Budburst starting at the Planeta Sambuca estate

Budburst starting at the Planeta Sambuca estate

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March 7, 2013 · 10:53 pm

Interview with Jacopo Cossater

Jacopo Cossater is a very prominent wine blogger in Italy based in Perugia. Amongst the many publications he contributes is the website Intravino.com, one of the most important and most visited wine-related websites in the country. Shortly I will be writing a piece about Jacopo and how we crossed paths as I think he is one of the most singular and fascinating people I met on my trip, not to mention incredibly generous and humble. He showed particular interest the unique nature of the journey I took, and my overall impressions of Italian wine, and so he interviewed me for the Intravino website. Google Translate doesn’t really do it justice so here is the original English version.
Jacopo Cossater in action

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March 6, 2013 · 2:23 am

Luciano Sandrone

One of the things I want to write in summarising my trip is to talk about some of the amazing people I met who imparted some of their wisdom and experience in wine and life. I am still in the process of looking back upon my blog archive which is taking me a lot longer than it should. But as it happens one of the people I intended to write about is making his first ever visit to Australia and I was lucky enough to be invited to a masterclass showing his wines here in Melbourne by the importer Bibendum Wines. This man is Luciano Sandrone, and after introducing him I will talk about why he had such an effect upon me.

Luciano Sandrone and myself when I visited in April 2012

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March 6, 2013 · 2:20 am

Luciano Sandrone – 4/3/2013

Dolcetto d’Alba 2011
Lovely and floral, brambly pomegranate, spicy sweet green pepper. Bright clear and fresh, wonderful acidity, nice tight clean finish, structure very fine but full of flavour without being simple.

Barbera d’Alba 2010
Denser and more intense, earthier and more savoury red fruits and violets. Focused yet round, clean lines yet nice and broad, tight focused fruit.

Valmaggiore Nebbiolo d’Alba 2010
Very aromatic intense floral dark fruit. Explosive structure, very intense fruit acid and tannin structure, very long and fine on the palate, very tight with plenty of aging potential.

Valmaggiore Nebbiolo d’Alba 2009
Hauntingly soft nose, very complex with cherry anise and delicate roses. Bright fresh and lively on the palate yet soft and intense, bombastic tannins yet refreshing acids, delicate structure and plenty of red fruits.

Valmaggiore Nebbiolo d’Alba 2008
Earthier darker and softer fruit, more focused mushroom savouriness, opening up over time. Very tight yet soft sweet fruit tannins, showing some chocolate and caramel notes as it develops.

Valmaggiore Nebbiolo d’Alba 2007
Falling away a bit, drinking very well now, not a keeper. Possibly a product of the vintage it is lovely and soft and approachable but won’t improve much more in the bottle.

Le Vigne Barolo 2008
Some savoury Japanese sauce notes, intense ripe red fruits, very ruby. Tight and intense, packs a punch on the front palate, delicate and clean on the mid and back. Classic.

Cannubi Boschis Barolo 2008
Darker and more intense complexity. Softer warmer tannins yet explosive mid-palate, brooding tight tannins, bright dark red fruits. Needs plenty of time in bottle.

Le Vigne Barolo 2004
Softer and earthier with age, chocolate dust, soft red cherry and plum. Sleek and silky on the palate with plenty of tannins and acid, very bright red with tight focused freshness.

Cannubi Boschis Barolo 2004
More intense and masculine broody darkness, less fruit brightness on the nose. Richer, fuller and darker on the palate, bolder but softer structure, more tannin yet somehow more approachable than the ’04 Le Vigne.

Le Vigne Barolo 2003
Soft bright and a little simple in a closed way aromatically. Hot full soft and forward with some dense red fruit but lacking extension on the palate.

Cannubi Boschis Sibi et Paucis Barolo 2003
Slightly more foresty and chocolate on the nose. Denser and more expressive, holding together much better, darker fruit and sweeter tannins still with plenty of acid.

Le Vigne Sibi et Paucis Barolo 2002
Insanely complex intense yet shy on the nose. Showing very young despite age, still plenty of life in it, very tight structure and acidity.

Le Vigne Barolo 2001
Soft round red fruit earthiness on the nose. Dense and a little aggressive on the alcohol.

Bottles of Sandrone wine

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February 15, 2013 · 12:35 am

Return to Oz

A few days ago I stepped onto Australian soil for the first time in 500 days. It is a pretty surreal experience returning home after having been on the move for so long, and seeing so many amazing and different countries. Firstly there is the fact that I have returned from sub-zero and icy temperatures in South Korea to warm and dry 30+ temperatures in Melbourne, and I can actually walk around in shorts and T-shirts like a proper Australian. I am also experiencing a kind of reverse culture-shock, as I had got so used to being in foreign and fascinating cultures and being somewhat out of my element. It probably doesn’t make sense to feel so out of place in my own home town.

I stopped in Seoul on the way home to visit a friend

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January 20, 2013 · 8:00 pm

Not what you think (Avellino, Italy)

One of the many things I’ve learnt on my journey has been to not make assumptions about things, wine or otherwise, the best thing is not listen to white noise or demons and angels on shoulders. This is one major reason I prefer to ignore a lot of wine critics and marketing hype as they can tend to cloud my judgement and enjoyment of things, in essence by not reading ‘professional’ assessment of wines or wineries, nor by reading much on wineries’ websites. What I have preferred to do is to visit a winery and establish my own impression and feel for the philosophy, approach and practices and then determine what I feel is important and good about the winery whilst avoiding the negative and generally unimportant things. A perfect example of an assumption I made was about the region of Campania, which I didn’t have the chance to visit when I was here previously, simply passing through from Puglia on the way to Sicilia when I stopped for a night in Napoli before boarding the ferry to Palermo. Not unlike every other region in Italy Campania has it’s own wine history, traditions, grape varieties and styles which it is deservedly proud of, but I was very wrong in my generalisation of this region as being warm and Mediterranean like much of southern-Europe. In fact it has a more continental climate thanks to the elevations and weather patterns provided by the mountains so close to the coast. On the only occasion that I had to visit wineries in Campania I chose to do so in Avellino which according to Jacopo Cossater is where some of the best white wines of the south come from, and I met with the two largest and most important representatives of the entire Campania region; Feudi di San Gregorio and Mastroberardino.
A model of the only thing to survive the 1980 earthquake in a nearby village, the abbey

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January 20, 2013 · 7:50 pm

Feudi di San Gregorio – 17/01/2013

Serrocielo Falanghina 2011
Lovely and bright, very fresh and aromatic, classic citrus and tropical melon fruits, clean and fruity. Balanced bright fresh and pure, light bodied and fresh, good minerality, straight-forward and approachable.

Pietracalda Fiano di Avellino 2011
More closed and less fruity, slightly more floral elements, honeyed lavender and musk, more seashell influence, a little iodine. More intense and full on the palate, textural and expressive, denser and longer on the palate, more complexity, warmer and more orchard fruit than citrus or tropical notes.

Cutizzi Greco di Tufo 2011
More basalt and dark minerality, rich ripe red citrus notes, ruby grapefruit and elderberry. Slightly wilder and almost earthier in nature, stone and orchard fruits, denser and masculine, a lot of dark minerality and some warmth and volume as well.

Aglianico dal Re 2010
Nice and dark, slightly dusty, fresh blackberries, some . Quite intense and tight, plenty of drive and focus but a little tight, not enough softness. Nice and light and approachable, fresh and clean. A tad green and undercooked.

Piano di Monte Vergine Taurasi 2007
Certainly more oaky and dark, reflections of the modern style but not too obvious, has had plenty of time in bottle to soften out the edges, need to see more aglianico to know if this is the right expression. Core of sweet dark concentrated fruit, bold and full but relatively soft and velvety, a touch sharp and also warm, intense and a little fiery, but good tannins and some sharpness. Not the style I would go for though.

Serpico 2008 (Irpinia Aglianico)
Tight and closed, intense but also brooding and shy, better integration of oak but somewhat muted fruit. Soft farily light but intense and fresh, not sweet or syrupy, quite intense warm and sharp focused tannins, long but good finish. More interesting and characterful than the previous wine, perhaps thanks to vintage.

Basilisco Aglianico del Vulture 2006
Very stinky rustic, possibly suffering some faults, bottle fault or wine fault?

Basilisco Aglianino del Vulture 2007
Not much better to be honest. Rustic and wild, sharp tannins, quite different and unique. Not bad as much as hard for many to understand and appreciate, and easy for people to say it is fantastic as it is so undeniably rustic and old-world.

Mastroberardino Greco di Tufo

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