Battle of the Italians - Friday 28th October

Italy for me has to be one of the most fascinating wine producing countries, with so many indigenous grape varieties, and such differences in the wines that are produced from the north to right down in the heel, and then you get the islands surrounding its coast.

Vistorta, is a 500 acre estate in the western Friuli-Venezia Giulia region and has been owned since the 1980 by Count Brandino Brandolini d’Adda, on discovering the similarities between the estate and Bordeaux took the decision to almost exclusively plant Merlot, with the aim to produce the greatest Merlot’s from Italy.

The 2011 Merlot Vistorta is the estates top wine and shows such great depth and complexity, giving you lovely forest fruit aromas and flavours, hints of spices and rich coffee beans, combined with beautifully silky tannin creates a wine to rival most of the wines produced on Bordeaux’s right bank.

Moving into central Italy and on its east coast you come to the Marche region and you find Umani Ronchi, who since 1959 have focused solely on the regions indigenous varieties of Verdicchio and Montepulciano.

The 2014 Verdicchio Classico Superior Casal di Serra shows all the classic traits of wild flowers, Peaches and Apricots, combined with a lovely refreshingly soft acidity, showing how great and delicious these wines can be.

Then down to Puglia in the heel of Italy you find Botromagno who produce many of the classic wines from this region, Primitivo, Salice Salentino and many more, they are also the only producer of the historic wine Gravina Bianco.

The 2015 Gravina Bianca is produced using 100% organic grapes and is a blend of Greco and Malvasia. You get lovely aromatics of Apples, Peaches, Apricots and hints of Pineapple, combine this with a crisp and bountiful acidity and you get a stunning and beautifully refreshing wines that you don’t find from anywhere else.

This Friday the 28^th, we will have the pleasure of hosting Beniamino and Alberto D’Agostino from Botromagno, Alessandra Fadda from Vistorta and Giorgio Pasanisi from Umani Ronchi for a fantastic tasting, where you will be able to taste the wines above and many more.

A selection of the wines on tasting this Friday

A Weekend of Antipodean Wines on Tasting

This weekend we're going to have quite the selection of wines on tasting from Australia and a great new Pinot Noir from New Zealand.

The Pinot Noir we're going to have on tasting is the 2014 Ward Valley Estate from Marlborough, this wine is produced by the same guys who produce the Snapper Rock wines that we stock, James Leary and winemaker David Coulston and is produced in tiny quantities, only 250 cases!

 I first came across this at last years London International Wine Fair, and I've managed to grab a couple of cases of this stunning vintage before they move on to the 2015.

This has that lovely pale bright cherry red colour to it, with amazing aromas of red berry and red currant fruit. On the palate these come through wonderfully with a real savoury character it that combine perfectly with a touch of acidity and very soft elegant tannin's, that just produce a stunning glass of wine and even more so when you find out how much it costs. For this weekend there will also be a special introductory offer, so don't miss out!

We'll also have a selection of Australian wines imported by the guys at Aussie Rules on tasting, with the Reverend V wines, Richard Hamilton, Riposte and the one I'm really excited about, the Mornington Peninsular Chardonnay from Dexter. These wines unfortunately won't be in stock for this weekend but we will be taking pre-orders and again there will be a special offer on them as well.