attention back to the island’s indigenous and are being bottled un"ltered and with the barest minimum of APRIL WINE NEWS now producing much more interesting, distinctive . sulphur dioxide, is a truly wonderful, deeply savoury wine. TASTING NOTES Just what every Champagne-lover needs: a neat tasting- #e recently imported range of Mandoleto , Arianna Occhipinti, the niece of one of the founders notes book specifically designed for entering your own for example, o$ers an excellent glimpse of this new of COS, takes this natural approach further, growing her impressions of the you drink. It includes maps, direction for Sicilian producers: a white that shows o$ grapes organically and sometimes adding no sulphur charts and other information about Champagne the refreshing lemony characters of the local when she bottles wines such as the SP68, a red which and costs $27 from The Truffle Man. thetruffleman.com.au in a clean, modern way, and a red that nicely shows the frappato grape o$ in all its unadorned, MOVEMENT IN THE HILLS #1 captures the dark, plump richness of the nero d’Avola undergrowthy, mouthful-of-prickly-berries beauty. After years of successful partnership, the Fowles family has bought the remaining chunk of the old Plunkett family grape. And they’re both around $15 a bottle. Another And the Porta del Vento estate in Palermo pushes business. The Plunkett Fowles and cellar door terri"c modern example of the nero d’Avola grape’s the natural boundary further again with a wine called business in the Strathbogie Ranges, well-known to drivers warm black fruit and deep earthiness is the 2009 Saharay: made from white catarratto grapes but in a heading north out of Melbourne on the Hume Highway, is Morgante, which retails for under $30. fashion far removed from the Mandoleto I mentioned now called simply Fowles Wine. fowleswine.com #e intriguing, unique !avours of these indigenous earlier, this cloudy with tart and wild MOVEMENT IN THE HILLS #2 grapes have also inspired some seriously impressive, !avours is made by fermenting the fruit on its skins Californian company Jackson Family Wines has expanded more upmarket producers both locally and from in open vats without cooling, with no added yeast, no its presence in McLaren Vale with the purchase of the highly regarded 80-hectare Hickinbotham in the further a"eld. For me, two of the leading locals sulphur, and no "ltration. Clarendon district. The Jackson family already owns the are Planeta and Donnafugata, both established But the ultimate example of natural excellent Yangarra Estate. yangarra.com by growers determined to overturn the island’s in – and perhaps the world – comes from Frank MASTERS OF THE WINE UNIVERSE image as a producer of forti"ed and bulk wines. Cornelissen, a curious Belgian wine professional who The -waiting profession received a boost Planeta’s must-try wine is the Cerasuolo bought an old, ungrafted vineyard on Etna a decade ago recently when the international Court of Master di Vittoria, a blend of !eshy nero d’Avola and and embarked on a visionary attempt to work as closely awarded 34 local somms Certified status. the spicy local frappato grape, from Sicily’s with nature as possible. Australia also now boasts two Master Sommeliers: Franck Moreau from the Merivale group and Michael Engelmann only region to have been awarded top DOCG As well as planting fruit trees and vegetation between from Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney. classi"cation. And two wines that have done the vines, Cornelissen has adopted a totally hands-o$ POP-UP WINERY more than most to boost the island’s reputation approach: the vineyard is not sprayed with anything, not Visitors to Adelaide CBD’s bustling East End precinct were are Donnafugata’s seriously impressive (and even copper and sulphur (both allowed in organic and treated to the sight of grape-stomping and fermentation seriously priced) sumptuously oaked nero d’Avola biodynamic ), and the top wines are fermented, last month at Vinteloper Wines’s pop-up winery. Vinteloper evocatively called Mille e Una Notte, and an on skins, in amphorae buried up to their necks in volcanic is an exciting name to watch: the Odeon and incredible, try-before-you-die sweet passito wine rubble. No additions of any kind are made at any stage. Adelo red blend are must-try wines. vinteloper.com.au called Ben Ryé, made from sun-dried moscato #e results are, for many people, a little scary: cloudy, QUE SYRAH Vine by any other name The top wine and a triple trophy winner from this year’s grapes grown on the satellite island of Pantelleria. sometimes feral liquids that can scare the bejesus out The renamed Fowles Sydney International Wine Competition is the spicy, Vini Siciliani Among the outsiders to have fallen under Sicily’s spell of your average technically minded Aussie winemaker. Wine vineyard in sinewy 2010 Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Syrah. You know Sicily has been gripped by a revolution, writes Max are Tuscany’s prestigious Mazzei family (best-known for But for a growing number of devotees, Cornelissen’s Victoria’s Strathbogie the times they are a changin’ when a Kiwi shiraz triumphs their Fonterutoli Chianti). #ey produce one of the best wines are the real soul of Sicily.* Ranges (above). at a wine show on Australian soil. top100wines.com Allen, and it’s now producing more interesting wines. examples of barrique-matured nero d’Avola at Noto in south-eastern Sicily, in a wine called Zisola: brooding Sicily might just be the hottest wine region in black fruit and layers of co$ee, toast and damp soil. TOP DROPS OF THE MONTH right now. And I’m not talking about the climate – While the wines of Planeta, Donnafugata and Zisola although obviously summer on this starkly beautiful are very much in the modern mould, produced in a style BARGAIN WHITE RED southern Mediterranean island can be scorching. that wows international wine critics and labelled to 2010 Swan Bay Shiraz, 2009 Box Grove Vineyard Roussanne, Sami-Odi Little Wine 1, From large volumes of exceptionally good-value, appeal to a%uent, savvy wine markets, there is also a Geelong, Vic, $15 Nagambie Lakes, Vic, $25 Barossa Valley, SA, $25 !avour-packed, sleekly labelled wines made from more recent and possibly more exciting trend in Sicily The 2010 vintage was a kind I love the roussanne grape’s ability A blend of barrels from 2010 and ancient grape varieties, to hatfuls of some of the most towards smaller-scale – sometimes more traditional, one in southern Victoria, and to produce rich, textural wines 2011 that didn’t make it into the mind-blowing, profoundly challenging natural wines, sometimes radically experimental – natural winemaking. produced plenty of lively wines. without sacrificing refreshing more expensive Sami-Odi shirazes, This is a cracking example – acidity and mineral tang. This this offers a glimpse of why this Sicily is pulsating with vinous excitement. And the good On the grumbling slopes of Mt Etna, new, certi"ed- slinky purple fruit and supple is a lovely, nutty, white-peachy label is turning heads: black-cherry news for Australian drinkers is that a surprisingly large organic such as Terre Nere are making tannin – at a very good price. example from central Victoria. juiciness meets Siena-cake intensity. number of the island’s best wines are available here. a compelling case for the local red grapes nerello Drink with sausages. Drink with roast chicken. Drink with mettwurst. Sicily’s hot summers and volcanic soil make grape- Mascalese and nerello cappuccio. Terre Nere’s Etna growing a relative doddle, and for centuries the vine- Rosso, a blend of the two varieties, has the ethereal IMPORT CELLAR SPARKLING carpeted island has produced oceans of wine, from the perfume, the transparency and the "ne, "ne tannins 2010 Evesham Wood , 2010 Shobbrook Syrah, 1998 Cascabel Composé Sparkling Grape island -like forti"eds of Marsala to bulk-plonk drunk you’d expect to "nd in a top nebbiolo from Piedmont, Willamette Valley, Oregon, USA, $38 Seppeltsfield, SA, $45 Shiraz, McLaren Vale, SA, $32 Donnafugata’s locally or surreptitiously trucked north to bolster the not the hot island of Sicily. Most Oregon pinots tend to be This firm, reserved gets Another bargain, I reckon, especially Contessa Entellina rare, plush, and on the pricey better each time I taste it: seriously if you like your sparkling shiraz lighter local drops. In Vittoria, the COS winery takes indigenous, vineyard in hilly side. This is more affordable and sexy black fruit is beginning to to walk on the wild side. Twelve Over the last few decades, though, a revolution organically grown grape varieties and ferments them in western Sicily (above). available – and sensational: subtly emerge from its shell of grippy years’ lees ageing have bestowed For devotees, the has gripped Sicily, as it has elsewhere in Italy. At the terracotta amphorae – or !at-bottomed “pithoi” as they’re spicy, slinky and savoury, with hints tannin. Give it another decade flavour layers of fresh mushroom, natural wines made volume end of the market, large and co-ops known locally – in much the same way as wine would of undergrowth and wood smoke. at least to blossom further. damp soil and dark, woody spices. by Frank Cornelissen initially planted international varieties such as cabernet have been made here 2000 years ago. #e red Pithos, a Drink with quail. Drink with wild mushrooms. Drink with roast duck. (inset) are the real sauvignon and to supply cheap booze to blend of frappato and nero d’Avola that spends no less For more wine tastings visit gourmettraveller!com!au! Stockists p225 soul of Sicily. UK supermarkets, but then, thankfully, swung their than seven months macerating in these amphorae before DONNAFUGATA PHOTOGRAPHY ANNA PAKULA BOTTLE PHOTOGRAPHY ELLA BRODIE REED

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