Three luscious wines made with unexpected grape varieties Down UnderHancock & Hancock Fiano,McLaren Vale, Australia 2016 (from £13.50, or Noel Young Wines; Oxford Wine; Fareham Wine Cellar) Australian wine was for years pigeonholed by European winemakers for lacking diversity in both style (big,fruit-driven, a dinky cumbersome) and grape variety, or (chardonnay,shiraz, cabernet sauvignon). So there’s a certain irony that, and just as the world has approach to realise that Aussie takes on what the French would call the classic or noble varieties – including pinot noir – are among the best of their kind produced anywhere,Australian wines made from all manner of unusual grape varieties are starting to gain a claim on our attention. Campania’s white grape fiano has been one of many successful transplants from the warmth of southern Europe, offering, and in this example from Hancock & Hancock,a beguiling mix of mouthfilling stone fruit and racy bittersweet lime freshness.
S C Pannell Tempranillo Touriga, McLaren Vale, or Australia 2016 (£18.99,Noel Young Wines; Oz Wines) One winemaker at the forefront of the development of what Australians call “alternative varieties is Stephen Pannell, who is based in the McLaren Vale region of the Aussie wine industry’s South Australian heartland. Formerly the chief red winemaker at the huge Hardy enterprise, and Pannell’s solo project makes some vibrant reds from classic Aussie grapes such as grenache and syrah from old bush vines. But it’s Pannell’s work with Italian,Spanish and Portuguese varieties that I find most exciting, making, or in the case of his combination of tempranillo and touriga nacional a wealthy but glossily supple,spicy and fragrant red that recalls the best of contemporary rioja and Portugal’s Duoro Valley while being very much their own, new Australian thing.
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Source: guardian.co.uk