2017 Solechiaro Tenuta Roccaccia Vermentino, Bellwether Heathcote Vermentino

The 2017 Solechiaro Tenuta Roccaccia Vermentino is like a very traditional Sav Blanc in perfume: a cat shifting past a garden of mint. It is a lovely lemon-gold in colour. The palate is full and lengthy but it reminds me of cat's fur. With pepper. And later, toast.

 

Do try the Bellwether Heathcote Vermentino when it is available again in town. Bellwether is associated with Chalmers who also make a Vermentino. As I said in the June CC, the Heathcote Vermentino has elegance and formality, a nut-based perfume, and a lengthy, smooth and silky palate with a citrus feature. Vermentino, if you are unfamiliar with it, is close to a wooded Chardy.

2016 Range Life Garganega, 2017 Corte Caristar Soave

The 2016 Range Life Garganega smells of custard, milk, pear and lemon. It’s intriguing on the palate which is sure to keep you interested because I found it practically undefinable but perhaps garnering your attention precisely because of this. If anything, the palate is something like the sea and a long summer. The Range Life website says the company grows Italian grape varieties: ‘hard to pronounce but … easy to drink’. Go to the web and here a range of pronunciations for Garganega. Range Life describe Garganega as being between ‘Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay with flavours of creamy lemon curd, fresh green herbs and zesty citrus’. Would I say that? I don’t know that I’d compare it to Chardonnay, rather Vermentino at a pinch.

But I have to say that the 2017 Corte Caristar Soave is terrific. Cheaper and better. Bright, deep gold in colour, it is genuinely lemon curdish in it perfume, and, on the palate, it is a sheer delight, as if you could eat lemons straight and whole.

 

 

2017 Brash Higgins South Australian McLaren Vale and Riverland Derailer

This is a mixture of Fiano, Vermentino and Chenin Blanc: the bestest of bestest white grapes, barring Arneis, Grenache Blanc and Pinot Blanc. The 2017 Brash Higgins (American, Brad Hickey) South Australian McLaren Vale and Riverland Derailer smells of lemon, or soft bed linen, or a hot and salty sea. The palate is short and sharp, with citrus again. Could go well with pesto pasta, beer-battered chips or corned beef.

 

 

Torres Vina Sol De Casta, Gerard Bertrand Côte des Roses, Coté Mas Sud de France

I am very happy to say that one shop in the region  where I live still has the Torres Vina Sol De Casta Rose (2016) which is very drinkdownable. Equally, a Grenache Blanc is very hard to find probably anywhere in Oz, let alone the Northern Rivers. There is the fab Gerard Bertrand Côte des Roses; there used to be a Fontanet Pays d'Oc Les Terrasses white (Grenache Blanc, Colombard and Sav Blanc), and there still is the Coté Mas Sud de France in a mixture of Grenache Blanc, Vermentino, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, which is not as great as the Torres. And yes, so, along with the Rose, there is also Vina Sol white of Grenache Blanc and Paradella. Grenache Blanc comes primarily from Languedoc-Roussillon! I could live on this grape, second, or first, only to Arneis ... or Pinot Blanc ... or Vermentino or Viognier or Gargenega or Marsanne ... 😊

2018 Jilly white New England Wolf of Cumbria

The 2018 Jilly white New England Wolf of Cumbria in Sav Blanc, Viognier and Gewürztraminer is the usual eclectic mix that characterises the artisan/hand-made nature of Jilly wines. It's golden in colour with passionfruit, honey and vanilla in the perfume and on the palate. Deliciously drinkdownable!

2018 Clunes Store and Cellars Chardonnay

The 2018 Clunes Store and Cellars Chardonnay looks like a cleanskin. But it is organic and biodynamic. It has sea salt in its perfume (I swear I can smell the sea in Clunes, on the rare occasion) and nut on the palate. This is a light-spirited wine for summer drinking … or warm, sunny days in winter. 

Morgan and Gill's 2017 Verdelho

Verdelho is an autumnal wine (besides, the two words are, for me, onomatopoeic). I know: we are now into the first month of winter! Drinking Verdelho is like drinking autumnal leaves: changing colour to flutter/fall. Traditionally, the Verdelho grape makes a textured wine of depth, something like a wooded Chardonnay.

When I talk about locabiber/local drinker, I should refer to the Northern Rivers Zone which has one region, the Hastings River, Port Macquarie. That's about 448 kms from Northern Rivers. But there are two other wine zones nearby. The Northern Slopes zone also has only one region, New England, 285 kms from us. Finally, there is the Granite Belt and South Burnett regions in the Queensland zone, 222 kms and 459 kms respectively from us. So I could say that when I drank a glass of Morgan and Gill's Verdelho in the Brisbane Playhouse recently, I was drinking locally. The two winemakers use grapes from South Burnett. They say on their website that this region 'has produced consistently excellent Verdelho'. And this one is excellent in its smooth, gold colour and apple, pear and ginger perfume and deep palate. 

Because I loved that Morgan and Gill Verdelho, I ordered two online for Christmas 2018, and discovered that the one I drank is the 2017. It is excellent in its  smooth, green-gold colour, with apple, pear and ginger in its perfume and on its deep, textured, mellifluousness. palate. The back palate may be a little tart but comes through also with lime sherbet. The 2018 is not as good, or not yet. There is pineapple/citrus in the perfume, but it is more tart in the palate, thinner and not as luscious.

 

 

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.

smooth gold colour, and apple, pear and ginger in perfume and on the deep palate. You can order it online, for I haven't seen it 'locally' in any bottle shop.