A brief look at some of the more enjoyable wines from the last few weeks including few I came across on a recent trip to Kraków in Poland.
Kvaszinger. SargaMuskotaly. Tokaj. No vintage given and couldn’t see one on the label unfortunately. This was a delightfully refreshing and drinkable wine, dry with lovely peachy stone fruit, lemon and a delicate floral character.
Pendits. Willie – Baumkauff. Tokaji Furmint Krakó. 2011. Handharvested, destemmed, fermented in Hungarian oak barrels then aged for 12-18 months. Lovely aromas of orange and stone fruit. Palate has a nice texture and is dry with a nice savoury finish.
Cantina Filippi. Monteseroni. Garganega. Verona. 2013. Golden in appearance with aromas of orange, honey and stone fruits. The palate is dry with lovely balance and a stoney minerality. A long, long finish.
Stagard. Handwerk. Gruner Veltliner. Austria. 2018. Made from grapes from two certified organic vineyards in the Kremstal appellation. Lots of apple and stone fruit here, lovely balance with nice minerality and a great finish. A wine that refreshes and satisfies.
Korenika and Moskon. Paderno. Slovenska Istra. Slovenia. 2013. An organic/biodynamic wine, wild ferment, unfined and unfiltered. Deep in colour with aromas of orange, tropical fruit and vanilla. The palate has depth and concentration. Well balanced with a crisp finish.
Costers Del Sio. Petit Sios. Costers del Segre. 2017. A blend of Tempranillo, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. Masses of red fruits with a gentle warming spice and a delicate herby perfume. Great value for money and very drinkable.
The August tasting at Bunch Natural Wine Bar in Liverpool was given over to three visiting winemakers from Swartland in South Africa. Each presented two wines, (one white, one red) from their portfolios and talked through their experiences making wine in the Swartland today. Living in the north west of the United Kingdom it is a rare opportunity to attend such an event without having to travel to London. This was an absolutely fascinating evening and I learnt so much. The wines on show were all excellent and choosing a favourite proved to be very difficult indeed.
The Blacksmith.
While working as an assistant winemaker in The Swartland Tremayne Smith began to make his own handcrafted wines under The Blacksmith label. This was in 2014 and his initial production that year was only four barrels. Things have moved on in the following five years and he now produces a range of wines using fruit grown in the Western Cape. His philosophy is simple, to make wines with minimalistic intervention, that exhibit a true sense of place and are delicious to drink.
The Kings Spirit Chenin Blanc. 2018. Darling. The Darling region is coastal with a warm Mediterranean climate with cooling sea breezes across the vineyards in the afternoon which help to cool the grapes and preserve freshness. The Chenin Blanc is from old bush vines planted in the 1960s. Bush vines are well suited to the dry, poor quality soils found here as they grow deep roots and so are more resistant to drought. Two barrels were made in 2018 representing only 580 bottles. Drought in the region has seen this fall by half in 2019!
Whole bunch pressed into barrel and a natural fermentation before a ten month maturation in old oak barrels. This has produced a fresh, aromatic wine with apple, pear and peachy stone fruit. It is complex with lovely texture and is perfectly balanced. It has a captivating almondy notes on the finish. Excellent stuff. The label is pretty good too.
The Basilisk. 2018. Paarl. Petite Sirah, also known as Durif, grown in the Paarl region of the Western Cape. 100% whole bunch with a cold natural ferment at 18 degrees Celsius. It spent ten days on the skins with pumping over every day. The fruit really does shine through here, it is a big, brooding, robust wine with blackcurrants in abundance along with an underlying raspberry freshness. It has lovely texture and is is savoury and meaty on the palate with a gentle touch of warming spice on the finish.
Swerwer Wines.
Swerwer was started by Jasper Wickens and is now into its seventh vintage. Swerwer means drifter or vagabond in Afrikaans and represents the notion of moving from place to place and gaining something from the experiences you have at each location. Jasper has worked at several wineries in South Africa as well spending time in Europe. His experiences have seen him move from a conventional style of wine making to one which is more hands off, allowing the terroir to shine through. His wines are generally unfined and unfiltered with the addition of only a minimum addition of sulphur required to keep the wine stable.
The wine has seen some skin contact with three different regimes in operation, 3 days, 5 days and 12 days. The wine is golden in appearance with good concentration, nice balance and hints of orange and almond on the palate. The finish has a distinct savouriness which is very appealing.
Red Blend. 2018. Swartland. A blend of 50% Cinsault, 40% Grenache and 10% Tinta Barocca. This blend works so well, the wine is well made and so good it demands your attention.Masses of dark cherry fruit with dried herbs, medium bodied and with a serious grip on the finish. Excellent stuff.
Silwervis Wines.
Winemaker Ryan Mostert is the driving force behind Silwervis. He loves to experiment and sees the Swartland as the perfect place to make his wines. It’s a dynamic region, full of like minded winemakers who are independent and innovative. Ryans approach may be seen by some as radical, he takes risks in his unconventional, experimental methods. It is an approach that large scale commercial wineries would never risk taking. For Ryan it has yielded some intriguing and fascinating wines that many people enjoy. Deliberately encouraging oxidation in a wine may well create some flaws but to Ryan you simply have to look for personality in the flaws themselves.
Smiley. NV. Swartland. This wine perfectly sums up the methodologies used at Silwervis to produce an innovative and distinctive wine. The Smiley is a blend of five different vintages of Chenin Blanc which have been made in different ways including skin contact, kept under flor and leaving barrels outside the cellar in the sun. The resulting wine walks a tightrope and does it perfectly. It has peach and apricot stone fruit with a pleasant salinity and great balance. There is some reduction but it adds and doesn’t distract. This wine breaks the rules and is a good example of it just might be a good idea from time to time.
Cinsault. 2017. Swartland. Perfumed red fruits, dried herbs and warm spice sit perfectly alongside a delicately savoury core. Medium bodied, round and with nice texture. The finish is lovely with herby red fruits. A beautiful expression of the grape.
Pittnauer. Perfect Day. Burgenland. Austria. 2017. With 15 hectares of vines Pittnauer has been certified as biodynamic since 2009. Minimum intervention, wild ferments and no additions except perhaps for a little sulphur these are wines which have a purity and a true expression of terroir. Perfect Day is a blend of Chardonnay, Muscat Ottonel, Gruner Veltliner and Traminer. All are vinified and aged separately in barriques for six months prior to blending. Crisp and fresh with citrus and some peachy stone fruit, nice structure and balance.
Etna Rosso. Fondo Filaria. Nicosia. Sicily. 2016. A blend of Nerello Mascalese (80%) and Nerello Cappuccio (20%) from an organic vineyard at an altitude of 650m on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily. The altitude gives a cooler climate producing a vibrant and fresh wine with delightful red berry fruits, cherry and warming spice. Medium bodied and with lovely balance.
Villa Barthenau. Vigna S Michele. Pinot Bianco. Hofstätter. Alto Adige. 2016. From a gentle sloping vineyard at an altitude of 450m in the Adige valley. Vigna means single vineyard and the estate has been making this particular wine since 1987. A short maceration before grapes are pressed and the juice put into large oak casks for fermentation. Maturation occurs on lees in oak for 15 months followed by 6 months ageing in bottle before release. This is a delightful wine, the nose is complex with stone fruit, citrus, almond and a hint of floral. The palate is medium with great balance and structure. A refreshing wine which is to be taken seriously. Great stuff.
Barolo Cannubi. GB Burlotto. Piemonte. 2014. Wines have been made here since the middle of the eighteenth century and wine making is very traditional. Much of the estates holdings are in the commune of Verduno but they do have around 2.5 hectares in Barolo of which 1.5 hectares are in the famous Cannubi vineyard. This is a seductive, ethereal wine with red fruit, cherry and savoury mushroom. Lovely structure and great depth with a great long finish. There is much to admire here, a truly great wine.
Verve Chardonnay. Oceans Eight. Mornington Peninsula. Victoria. 2015. Cool climate chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula just 60 miles south of the city of Melbourne. A sublime nose of citrus with hints of tropical fruit and green apple. The palate has lovely balance and a dry marzipan finish that lasts and lasts.
Bernoota. Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon. Lake Breeze. Langhorne C reek. South Australia. 2016. Growing grapes for over 130 years and producing wine since 1987 Lake Breeze is an award winning winery about an hours drive from Adelaide. Bernoota is an Aboriginal word which means ‘camp among the gum trees’ and it was the original name for the house built on the property. This wine is a blend of Shiraz (60%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (40%) from the Follett family vineyard. It has been matures for twenty months in a mixture of French and American oak. Black fruits with a touch of cooling eucalyptus and some warming peppery spice. It is soft and round and is a lovely drink now but it is youthful and can only get better.
Garrigae. Domaine Ollier Taillefer. Faugères. 2014. A family owned property of 36 hectares in the appellation of Faugères in the Languedoc region of southern France. Vineyards are managed organically. I know very little about this wine, which I came across in a supermarket on a recent visit to the area, but I did enjoy it very much. The nose is wonderful with red berry fruits, dried herbs and wild flowers. The palate is medium bodied with soft red fruit and a gentle savouriness that supports but doesn’t dominate. The finish is long.
Rosso di Sera. Poggiopiano. Toscana. 2013. Nine hectares of vines owned and managed by the Bartoli family since 1993 and located just south of Florence in the Val di Pesa. This supertuscan is a blend of Sangiovese and 10% Colorino and is rich, dark and seductive. Dark cherry, chocolate and the lightest touch of mint. It is generous, with lovely balance and finish of lingering dark cherry.
Mas de Daumas Gassac. Vin de Laurence. 2011. Only made in exceptional vintages, this is only the fourth since 1997. Produced by a double fermentation, firstly with Serial grapes and then with late harvested Muscat Petit Grains. The blended wine is then aged for between 8 and 10 years in oak barrels. Sherry like with masses of sweet peach, apricot, honey and orange marmalade. The Serial gives it a lovely freshness. Complex and very drinkable .Excellent.
Classic Muscat NV. Stanton & Killeen. Rutherglen. New South Wales. Making wines for seven generations, they produce a range of wines that are well worth investigating, if like me, you enjoy this particular style of sweet wine. There are toffee, figs and raisins a plenty here but it is clean, fresh, well balanced and not at all cloying. A very long finish of dried figs with a feint touch of cinnamon.
