A Tasting with Paola Falabretti from Camigliano

Tastings seem to have been coming thick and fast for me recently, and we head back up from the southern hemisphere and to Tuscany in Italy with Paola Falabretti from Camigliano, to taste through some of their wines.

Camigliano is a village which can trace its origins back to Etruscan times, and was dedicated to the cultivation of grapes and olives. In 1957 Walter Ghezzi bought the estate, and produced their first Brunello vintage in 1965, the estate today extends over 530 hectares, of which 92 are under vine. To the south of Montalcino their are 50 hectares planted with Sangiovese Grosso which is used to make their Brunello. The grapes are still harvested by hand and the winery has been designed for minimal environmental impact by building the majority of it underground, they also use gravity to move the wine around to avoid any damage to the wine.

I got to taste through a few wines from their range, but 3 really stood out for me;

2013 Gamal Vermentino

Fermentation happens in stainless steel to help preserve the wines freshness, with a lovely green hue in the glass, you got delicate aromas of grapefruit and lime, a touch of tropical fruit and delicate floral aromas. On the palate these came through beautifully combined with a zingy acidity which gave this a real refreshing character. Definitely a great one to try, especially nicely chilled on a hot sunny day.

2011 Chianti Colli Senesi

The grapes for this wine come from some of the youngest Sangiovese vines on the estate which give the wine much more fruit flavours, and is fermented in stainless steel with pumping over the skins for 8 - 12 days to help preserve these. The wine had deep purple/red colour in the glass, with pronounced aromas of dark fruit, cherries, blackberries, on the palate you got this wonderful sour cherry with some soft and silky tannins which all combined fantastically and produced a great wine for drinking.

2009 Brunello di Montalcino

Again produced from Sangiovese, the grapes are fermented in stainless steel with pumping over for 15 - 20 days after fermentation, it is then aged in oak barrels, then a final two years in stainless steel and bottle before release. You got a pale red with an orange rim in the glass, with some delicate aromas of dark fruit, spice and tobacco box. These all came through in wave after wave gloriously in the mouth, combined with a gentle acidity and soft/silky tannins which were all combined perfectly. Now I haven't tasted many Brunello's to help me to compare quality and style, all I can say is that it was a magnificent wine that for that special occasion I would definitely recommend.

I have to say I was very impressed with the wines from Camigliano and I would definitely trying any of them, whether it be as an everyday wine the Chianti Colli Senesi or for that special occasion with the Brunello di Montalcino you definitely won't go to far wrong.

A New Australian Wine Brand from DeBortoli Wines

Earlier in the year I had the pleasure of meeting many winemakers from Australia’s great wine making families at the Australia’s First Families of Wine bloggers lunch at Vinoteca, one of which was Leanne DeBortoli, obviously, from DeBortoli wines. Then a couple of weeks ago I received a message from her inviting me to join them for an online tasting for their new BellaRiva range of wines, I have to admit it sound a bit odd doing a tasting online, but thought I could be very interesting. A couple of days before the tasting I received the wine, a bottle of Vermentino/Pinot Grigio, and a bottle of Sangiovese/Merlot accompanied by the obligatory press release.

On the morning of the tasting, as usual I was keeping an eye on Twitter to see what was being said; when I noticed that a few people were talking about the wines already, which got me panicking, had I missed the tasting! So I rushed home, switched the laptop on and signed into ustream, which is the live video streaming site they were using, to find a blank screen saying please wait for the video to begin. Which I thought was a little odd, till I realised that they were doing them at several different times due to the number of people they were hoping to get joining in, then if by magic the screen started to buffer, and up came Leanne and her husband/wine maker Steve Webber.

They went through the idea behind the new brand, BellaRiva and the site they had used to grow the fruit, in the King Valley. The name BellaRiva in Italian means beautiful river bank, which it quite apt as the site sits along 3.5km of King river frontage, after watching a promotional video and listening to the ideas behind the wines, we moved on to tasting them.

We started with the Vermentino/Pinot Grigio blend, in the glass you got a bright straw colour, with nice aromas of pears and apples, you these coming through on the palate as well, with a slight nutty characteristic coming through from the background. There was just enough acidity to go with the fruit, but not too much that it spoilt your enjoyment of the wine. The Vermentino really gave the wine quite a full mouth feel and help to give the Pinot Grigio some real structure, which is something it’s usually lacking, I must say that I actually quite enjoyed this wine; it wasn’t what I had been expecting.

The Sangiovese/Merlot had a deep ruby colour, with plenty of red fruit aromas; these came through in abundance on the palate with a touch of spice thrown in for good measure. There was a small amount of fine tannin and a good level of acidity all combining to make a very enjoyable and easy drinking wine, which is what Steve had said was the aim for this wine.

Both of these wines were very enjoyable, and with the price point of £9.99 are good value, definitely worth giving serious consideration too if your looking for a good drinking wine that everyone would enjoy.

A Great Rose from California

Organic wine can be a bit of a misnomer, is their really such a thing? Many people will say, it says organic on the label so therefore it must be, but how carefully do they read the label. If they did they would see that usually in very small print, it will state that its wine made from organically grown grapes, not actually an organic wine. For it truly to be 100% organic would require the use of no chemicals at all, which reduces it shelf life considerably, due to winemakers inability to use sulphur to preserve it.

I had the fortune to be sent a bottle of Rose from the Bonterra winery in Mendocino County, California to review for the blog. I’d seen this brand around for many years on supermarket shelves, although not so much these days, but I’d never had the opportunity to taste them and this seemed the perfect opportunity.

The blend used for their Rose is that of Sangiovese, Zinfandel and Grenache which makes for an interesting drink. On pouring the wine, you had a bright Salmon pink colour with aromas of Strawberries, Raspberries, red Cherries and Elderflowers. You got all of these aromas on the palate, with a touch of peppery spice coming through in the background. To go along with these wonderful fruit flavours you got a good level of acidity, which made your mouth water, putting all these together you got a well balanced wine that worked so well.

Would i recommend this wine? Well chilled on a hot sunny day, this would be perfect for a lunch time drink that all will enjoy!

Currently this wine is available as a Valentines gift set from Tesco’s with two bars of Green and Blacks chocolate.