Filthy Good Vino

Chianti is made in a number of townships in Tuscany. In the old days wines were made from field blends, a mix of grapes of different local varieties, planted on the one plot. The dominant variety being Sangiovese with a splash Canaiolo, Colorino and others thrown into the mix.  In the last few decades French varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz have been introduced and incorporated into many Tuscan wines. The Cabernet Blends like Ornellaia from Antinori have received critical acclaim. A bottle of 1990 Ornellaia was wine of the night amongst some serious Barolos from the likes of Gaja, Aldo Conterno, Masseto & Mascarello.

I still have a soft spot for the Sangiovese focused wines. Over the last couple of years I’ve been so focused on drinking wines from Piedmont, Sicily and around Naples and beyond, that I’ve forgotten just how much fun Chianti can be.  Sangiovese typically has big bunches, with large berries and thin skins, that can result in wines of light colour. Don’t let that deceive you. They can have incredible intensity and are well worth getting your laughing gear around. Here’s a few I’ve tried recently that have been fun!

Castello Monsanto

A few rustic Chianti’s on the deck at Boccaccio Cellars today! The same, but, different to the Isole e Olena wines.

All three are blends of 90% Sangiovese and 10% Canaiolo and Colorino.

2013 Chianti Classico – looking raw, needs time to settle. Some chewing texture demanding food. $35.

2012 Chianti Classico Riserva – a hard edge, structure supported by a splash in some new oak. Solid core of fruit and some funk. Again one to watch. $60.

2010 Chianti Classico Riserva Vigneto “Il Poggio” –  a density not present in the others. Fruit depth handling the oak beautifully. Refined texture, plenty of yumminess! Can’t wait for the 2012 … Birth year wine for my first! $100.

Isole e Olena

2012 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico – 80% Sangiovese, 15% Canaiolo and 5% Shiraz. Old school style, respecting the fruit. Savoury yumminess, layering up sour cherries with a refined texture & an edge of acid that would cut the fat of a Bisteccca Fiorentina perfectly. The best standard Isole e Olena I’ve tasted in ages. Threw a few of these bad boys in the cellar. $35. BEST VALUE OF THESE WINES!!

2010 Isole e Olena “Cepparello” – 100% Sangiovese Brooding almost inky core of fruit holding its own in competition with an edge of new oak. Great to see it under Screwcap. Needs time. $99.

The Chardonnay Line Up

The Chardonnay line-up at Boccaccio Cellars Vic Wine Show tasting today! I love where Aussie Chardonnay is going. Playing right at the limitless of yumminess!

2014 Seville Estate Chardonnay – Yarra Valley: my personal preference. wicked value at around $30 a tube! Fresh style with juicy linear acid & the core of fruit to support it. Whole bunch pressed and wild fermented in large 300L, 500L and foudre ~2000L oak (not sure of exact size, just a guess). Big oak reduces the effective amount of oak per litre of wine.

2014 Coldstream Hills Estate & Reserve Chardonnay – Yarra Valley: Estate looking better than the reserve on the day. Both lovely core of fruit. Angularity of oak in the reserve. $30 & $50 respectively.

2014 Piano Piano Sophie’s Block Chardonnay – Beechworth: a funk monster, lots of lees, wild ferment & craziness with some delicious fruit to support it. Out there & loving it!

The Shiraz Line Up!

These 3 wines represent much of what I love about wine. All Shiraz, from three regions across Victoria. They are all unique. We get to celebrate the difference & enjoy yummy wine with very individual personalities.

2013 Mitchell Harris Shiraz – Pyrenees: with it’s fresh vibrant fruit, perfume and supple texture at $35.

2013 Tahbilk Shiraz – Goulburn Valley: with it’s rustic structure, savouriness, showing the almost Barolo like tannins of the region at $? pre-release sample hence the non-commercial label.

2013 Buckshot Vineyard Shiraz – Heathcote: with an inky density of fruit, big ballsy, but, still with a refined texture at $35.

3 different wines 3 very good wines, giving us as consumers 3 yummy experiences. Your personal preference deciding which is your drink of choice! The lucky country! All winners at this years Victorian Wine Show.

A Pinot in the Mix

2014 Seville Estate Pinot Noir – Yarra Valley: Solid booze at $30 a bottle. Cooler fresher style with lift from a portion of whole bunches in the ferment. These also added a spice and a chewing mouthfeel. It hard to see wines like this at their best so young. They just need some time to settle. The core of fruit is their, masked by stalks. This should be a delicious wine in a few years when the mouthfeel settles and the flavours start to layer in. So be patient!

Two whites to kick off…

2013 Guigal Côtes du Rhône – Viognier, Roussane, Marsanne blend. Fun every day drinker with plenty of personality. Bargain for under $20 a tube.

2013 La Font du Vent Côtes du Rhône Viognier. Some succulent acid & spice with an edge of that oily texture typical of Viognier and resting beautifully in this wine. Lots of intrigue. Again great value at less than $20 a tube.

Overall lots of yumminess and plenty of bang for your buck!

Next up 3 x sub $20 Côte du Rhône Reds!

2011 Guigal Blend of 60% Syrah, 35% Grenache & 5% Mouvèrdre. Year in year out this is a great value wine, particularly given the volume they make. Insane that they manage to age it for 18 months in foundres (massive old oak barrels) and have an average vine age of 35years!

Mont-Redon 2012 Grenache, Syrah fun booze intriguing, layered, yummy!

Château Pégau 2012 Grenache, Syrah, Mouvèrdre Stepped it up with greater depth & a real lift. Bags of personality and a refined texture! Wine of the bracket.

Overall great value, complexity, yumminess. Get one of each and go back for the one you like.

Last up 2 x 2012 Châteauneuf du Papes!

Mont-Redon Little hit of new oak. Almost only density. Solid booze. Needs some time to settle into it’s skin and reveal full potential $65.

Pégau had an edge of the pox (brettanomyces, a spoilage yeast) it was at a level that you could say added to complexity. The challenge being that it could dominate more over time. Some great fruit and texture behind it. $120.

Keep on the Rhône theme with a Rhône inspired red.

Yarra Yering Dry Red No2 a Shiraz Viognier Marsanne plus secret ingredients blend. A cheeky Dolcetto on the side.

YY Beautiful core of juicy fruit. A rawness that comes from not getting enough air time during oak ageing. May have been a result of the first time the winery has bottled under screw cap.

Benevelli Dolcetto an animal, well developed, a bit of animal. Serious structure that just asks for a bit of cow on your plate! Bargain at $25.

“Bon élévage”

The French use this term with reference to both wine and children! It translates to “A good upbringing” or “Being well raised”.

For kids this covers life before adult hood begins. For wine the period of time following the initial alcoholic fermentation right up until the point of bottling.

Every week I taste the Filthy Good Vino Bathtub Cabernet, just like every day I read my daughter, Genevieve, stories. I listen to the wine to see if it needs something from me. Sure I’ll look to see if there are problems, has it contracted Wine Flu AKA Brettanomyces or did the Flu Shot I gave it early in life help. Is it reduced, smelling of rotten egg gas? Is it oxidised, needing a sulphur addition?

More importantly I focus on the little things that I can do to help it grow up into a well rounded kid. After the last taste, I thought:

So, it’s racking time …

Doing QC before racking the #FilthyGoodVino Bathtub Cabernet!

You can see a layer of pink lease at the bottom of the glass container at front.

Racking will take the clear wine from the top and we’ll get rid of tge sediment. It will introduce oxygen to help the wine develop & blend the new oak, old oak & glass stored components together.

Here’s the lees from racking a glass storage vessel.

It’s mostly dead yeast & bacteria coloured by the wine. Depending on what wine you’re making you can choose to keep the lees with the wine to get flavour and texture fromthe autolysis, break down of the cells. Lees is “reductive” it chews up oxygen too and can help keep the wine fresh. One the best examples of the potential impact of lees is in the production of Champagne. After the second fermentation in bottle the wine is left in contact with the yeast lees. Over time as they break down the impart patisserie characteristics & a creamy mouthfeel. Same principles apply to white wines in barrel.

The #FilthyGoodVino Bathtub Cabernet is looking good and I perceive that it won’t benefit from further lees contact. Admittedly the wine has already been racked so most of the lees have already been removed.

Interestingly Gaia Gaja mentioned that they keep their lees and use them to top their barrels.

Syphoning off lees from our Demijon – Clear hose makes it easy to see if you’re sucking up the lees!

At 49 years old this baby, 1966 Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Claret, was looking tired! So I decanted it onto 30ppm of Sulphur & left it 2 days. Result was impressive!

The samples I tried on the day, both sulphured & un-sulphured were dramatically different. The unsulphured sample was hard with an aldehyde finish. The sulphured sample fresher, but, closed. Aldehyde had been mopped up by the sulphur.

2 days later the sulphured sample has freshened and opened up beautifully. For around $20 you can get the equipment & sulphur needed to treat more tired old bottles than you’ll drink in a life time. If you have a lot of old wine in the cellar & want to know how to do, this hit me up via the Contact Page or leave your email address in a comment below.