Wine with Leslie: Restore your faith in Pinot Grigio with this lively wine for under €20
While Cantina Tramin does produce some red wines (notably Lagrein and Pinot Noir), its focus in recent years has been on aromatic white wine
I am returning to Northern Italy this week, motivated by some fascinating sample bottles sent to me by Enrico Fantasia of Grape Circus and from Cantina Tramin, one of the oldest growers’ Co-Operative in Northern Italy (1898).
Cantina Tramin is based in Alto-Adige, Italy’s most northerly wine region at the Southern tip of the Austrian Tyrol with Alpine peaks towering over the vineyards. The co-op has 180 growers but the average vineyard size is just one hectare (100m by 100m). This might be Italy but German is also spoken here and, intriguingly, many of the grapes grown are French in origin.
Gewürztraminer is the co-op’s signature grape and their top wine ‘Epokale’ Spätlese was the first Italian white wine to receive 100 points from Robert Parker’s Wine Advisor magazine. Sadly I was not sent any Epokale (it would retail around €300 I’m guessing), although I think Celtic Whiskey Shop does have it occasionally.
While Tramin does produce some red wines (notably Lagrein and Pinot Noir), its focus in recent years has been on aromatic white wines and so that was what was sent — they were all excellent.
Tramin is imported by Celtic Whiskey Shop which is Dublin-based but ships nationwide and also has a pub in Killarney which is worth a visit. Tramin’s Pinot Grigio is its biggest seller here as you might guess, and it is one of the better examples in the market. What got me more excited was the premium Unterebner Pinot Grigio which was more like Alsace Pinot Gris in style, and I’d love to see more people take it on as well as the luscious fragrant Nussbaumer Gewürztraminer and the complex Stoan white blend (‘stoan’ is local dialect for stones — reflecting the steep stony vineyards).
Meanwhile, Grape Circus stocks mainly European wines with an emphasis on low intervention and organic producers and is particularly strong on Italy. To get the best from Enrico’s wines you might want to visit his excellent restaurant ‘Piglet’ — spotlighted earlier this year by Katherine Zappone’s text messages to Leo Varadkar. Otherwise, Enrico is best found in independents, via the excellent SIYPS.com (Sommelier in Your Pocket) or in Sheridans Cheesemongers in Galway and Dublin. Come on Munster outlets, give Enrico a call — and Celtic Whiskey Shop while you are at it.
I confess I struggled to find any good Northern Italian wines to recommend under €15 other than ones I’ve featured before, so this week I have changed the columns to under €20 and over €20.
Stockists: Jus de Vine, Clontarf Wines, Blackrock Cellars, Martins, 64 Wines, Nolans, Fresh, CelticWhiskeyShop.com
Tramin’s Pinot Grigio might just restore your faith in this rather maligned grape. This pours with a very slight pink hue (the grape is a grey-pink colour), and has creamy tropical fruit aromas mixed with pear and apple - textured and lively on the palate with lingering pear skin flavours. Its big brother Unterebner Pinot Grigio is significantly richer and more luscious.
Stockists: Opera Deli Wicklow Town, Sheridans, Blackrock Cellar, Siyps.com
Arneis was once used to lighten up Nebbiolo wines and almost went extinct in the 1960s (it is low-yielding and troublesome). Thankfully, it has been revived, especially in Roero DOCG where it competes with Nebbiolo. Aromas of almond cakes, tropical fruits and pear: textured and layered with fine minerality and freshness cutting through the exotic flavours and a pleasing zing of apple freshness on the finish.
Stockists: Cass & Co Dungarvan, Sheridans Galway & Dublin, SIYPS.com
This is new on the market and still making its way around the country. Created by La Scuola nel Vigneto, a social-educational project promoting the teaching of winemaking traditions in Valpolicella run by two wineries. Aromas of red cherries with background spice notes: rounded and fruit-driven with lively, juicy, red and black fruits that fill the senses. Watch also for the Garganega — both are gorgeous.
Stockists: Sheridans, Mitchell & Son, SIYPS.com
From Fabrizio Iuli in Monferrato in Piedmont, a self-styled ‘Barberista’, such is his dedication to Piedmont’s second most famous grape (after Nebbiolo). This is fermented in concrete and unfiltered with very low intervention — aromas of soft red fruits with noticeable cherry and strawberry, fruity and pleasing on the palate with a touch of volatile acidity and Barbera’s characteristic freshness bristling on the finish.
Stockists: Jus de Vine, 64 Wines, CelticWhiskeyShop.com
Tramin considers Gewürztraminer to be their signature grape and they make some of the best outside Alsace. From grapes grown on the old and venerable Nussbaumer Estate at 400m elevation and given gentle pressing and lots of lees contact. This is beautifully scented with exotic lychee and floral scents, a creamy and complex palate, and a clean pear-tinged finish. Try with Chinese food, cheese, or shellfish.
Stockists: CelticWhiskeyShop.com
Tramin see this as a sort of family portrait of their white grapes and the Alto-Adige terroir - 65% Chardonnay, 20% Sauvignon plus some Pinot Bianco and Gewürztraminer all from stony (stoan) soils. Yellow peach aromas with elderflower and herbal tinges, rounded and complex with layers of flavour and pleasing spikes of crisp apple mingling with peach and pear on the palate and a zingy pineapple freshness on the finish.
Stockists: SuperValu, Castle Tralee, wineonline.ie, shop.thebearadistillery.ie/
I’ve featured the gins from Beara Distillery near Castletownbere on the Beara Peninsula here in the past. The original has a salty complexity and the pink version has a floral red fruit character and a hint of the sea — both are worth trying.
Now they have sourced an interesting whiskey from the Great Northern Distillery in Dundalk and finished it in Beara in charred and double charred Bourbon casks — it is also cut with Caha Mountain Spring Water. Aromas of vanilla, spice and butterscotch with noticeable oak: creamy and soft on first sip with vanilla and some prickly heat on the finish. This is sweet, easy and soft, and a little too drinkable.
