Made by Argentinian powerhouse, Zuccardi, this is a crisp cheapie barbeque wine that is probably responsible for introducing northern hemisphere westerners to Torrontes, which is wrapped up in a neat little marketable package that includes the flavour of the moment, Pinot Grigio. For that we can be thankful, I suppose. Torrontes is to Argenitina what…
Moncaro Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico 2012
This wine is made in the hilly region surrounding Jesi, a series of fortified villages (Castelli) near Ancona in the Marche region of Italy. The grape variety’s name translates as “little green one”, referring to the green tinge of both the grapes and the wine produced, and is also known as Trebbiano di Soave, Trebbiano…
Zohar Fiano 2011 by Susana Balbo
Argentina’s first certified oenologist is making me happy. This really is a lovely little wine, and it’s a damn shame I’ve only seen it on the shelf at Rootsock. If only I could convince Asado or Gaucho to pop it on their winelists… It’s incredibly good value. Firstly, it’s a chic grape -beautifully boutique, originating…
Jacobs Creek Reserve Riesling 2007
Well, this was a find. Usually I would veer away from any white older than 3-4 years for sale in the UAE (except perhaps a super dooper white that is in the temperature controlled cabinet), due to the storage issues – I’ve had more than a couple of cooked whites from 2009 this year. But,…
Fleur Du Cap Unfiltered Semillon 2012
Ok – this is nothing like the Semillons back home (Oz, where they’re lean and grapefruity or toasty and linseedy). Nor is it anything like the Semillon blends from France (lean again, with grass and citrus and a little honey, unless of course it’s botrytised and that’s a whole different ball game). It’s uniquely South…
Danie De Wet Limestone Hill Chardonnay 2011
Well, Wine-Ed-101 will tell you that limestone and good wines go together, so I picked this up hoping it wasn’t a marketing campaign to make a hill full of stones and planted with lime trees, sell. Lucky, it’s not. And, it’s quite a lovely surprise. This wine is for those who love their Chardonnays with…
Tommasi Bosco de Gal 2010
This is a very inexpensive blend that packs a punch. The grape varieties are Trebbiano, Garganega, Malvasia and Cortese. Cortese is the famed Gavi variety, and Garganega is the same of Soave. Here, they come together with a couple of flavoursome (but often low acid and a little light on complexity) varieties to form a…
Caldora Trebbiano d’Abruzzo 2011
Trebbiano is one of the highest yield grape varieties you can get. So it’s always pretty cheap. Would it help if I called it Bombino Bianco? That sounds better than common cheap white, doesn’t it? And it should – this is a quite explosive little number. The equivalent in Italy of a cheap grassy Antipodaen…
Torres Vina Esmarelda 2010
This is a wine that is hard not to like, at least for the first glass – exceptionally fragrant, and yet deceptively dry. But it’s also like a beautiful woman wearing a stunning perfume, just a little too much of it. The fragrance (lychee, jasmine and ripe, ripe pears) can overwhelm all around it, and…