Monday, July 26, 2010

Aussie to Start – Italians to End (Australia / Italy)

After the Scotch on the Rock tasting it was time to head back to familiar territory, so I opened a bottle of Thorn-Clarke 2008 Terra Barossa Estate Grown Shiraz … at first it seemed a little tame next to all those Scotches, but it finally came into its own and the chocolate, plum and pepper came thru.

Dinner was started off with a nice salad and garlic bread course, it was Italian night on the island, and for this I had two special Italian wines for the occasion. Umani Ronchi 2007 Jorio Montepulciano D’Abruzzo started things off in an elegant way. This wine has some rustic notes to it but there is also plenty of good fruit, pepper, herbs and spice – it was the best wine of the night hands down, lots of complexity and enjoyability and had I had another bottle with me we would have opened that. Instead I opened a bottle of Vinicola Torrevento 2006 Torre del Falco Nero di Troia, this wine had lots of plum and vanilla notes with rich, ripe fruit. The plumminess really took over here and it felt like a Zinfandel in the mouth with all that big fruit; not surprising it comes from the home of the Primitivo grape (Zinfandel’s kissing cousin) in Italy, Puglia.

Where the Jorio showed old world charm with balance, the Falco show a new world style with big fruit. I liked them both for what they were but the Jorio just stood out as the complete package.


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