Wine with Leslie: Buy wine 'in bond' to save money and as a treat for later on
Buying 6 or 12 bottles and watching the wine evolve is hugely rewarding.
Italian wine this week, on foot of two excellent tastings. Tindal Wine Merchants who own Searsons Monkstown held a brilliant ‘Anteprima’ tasting recently with samples of Barolo that are not yet available but can be ordered ‘in bond’ — meaning you pay the wine price now and the duty and VAT when it arrives. I find this an excellent way to order wine as the pain is halved. All the wines are from the very solid 2018 vintage — all producers are recommended but my favourites were probably Porro (see below), Rocce Costamagna and Cavallotto. Contact Searsons on 01-2800405, shop@searsons.com
Selections this week are three fine examples of Nebbiolo, all making their debut. Barbaresco may be beside Barolo but their wines tend to drink earlier and display a little more floral softness, but it really depends on the producer — the wine here is a fairly textbook example. Barolo can be deliciously floral also but with a bit more heft and tannic structure — buying 6 or 12 bottles and watching the wine evolve is hugely rewarding.
Nebbiolo is grown in other parts of Piedmont and Lombardy, most notably in the beautiful vineyards of Valtellina in the foothills of the Alps. Valtellina recently gained Unesco World Heritage Status, part of an effort to maintain the vineyards in the area which have come down from around 3000ha in the 1970s to 850ha today. I tasted the full range of ArPePe last Autumn and they were all outstanding. Besides the wine below I also loved the ‘Rocco de Piro’ 2015 which had pleasing boiled sweet touches mixed in with floral red fruits and the ‘Buon Consiglio’ 2013 (€90) which tasted younger than its years with layered raspberry and cherry fruits off-set by damp earth hints and textured layered complexity.
Also here are two Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a wine that can be rather thin and desultory if over-cropped but these two examples should restore your faith if you last tasted it in a down-at-heel pizzeria. The Cantina Tollo Co-Op were leaders in the organic field back in the 1980s and Le Caveau has a few of their organic wines with others imported by the venerable Kellys of Clontarf — a wine shop I don’t mention enough. With more than 700 growers and 14 million bottles produced Tollo are not a small producer but I’ve never been disappointed by their wines.
Finally, I had to include a white and the Rizzardi Pinot Grigio below might convince you to look again at this much-maligned grape. Buon Appetito.
Cantina Tollo has appeared here before as their excellent Organic range is imported by Le Caveau and stocked by the likes of Bradleys and Latitude 51. Kellys Clontarf meanwhile imports this Riserva and it is loaded with soft dark fruit aromas with hints of wild herbs, a supple, fruit-driven palate with lingering hints of liquorice and blackcurrant jam.
Made specifically for the importer Liberty Wines in a co-op in the north of Abruzzo around the town of San Salvo from a mix of hillside and flatter vineyards. This pours a rich dark purple-red with black fruit aromas (including sweet fruit-gums hints): soft dark cherry and plum fruits with a touch of chocolate, juicy, ripe and supremely drinkable.
Rizzardi often appears on this page for its fruity soft Valpolicella and Amarone and I think I’ve also mentioned its crisp Lugana and Soave. However, I do not think I have mentioned their Pinot Grigio and it’s at a bargain price this month. A long way from the rather flavourless PG of other producers this is packed with soft pear and peach fruits with a lively crisp finish perfect for springtime.
Ar.Pe.Pe is one of the best producers in Valtellina, some of the most beautiful vineyards in the world. The Valtellino Rosso (€33) is also worth a try but this is worth the extra tenner — fragrant, earthy red cherry aromas with a hint of damp woodlands, fruity and lively on the palate with chewy cherry skins and fine acidity.
From a family-owned winery with an excellent reputation for their Barolo and other Langhe wines. Their Barberesco is traditionally made in large old Slavonian Oak barrels and pours a delicate ruby red with perfumed floral red fruits with a hint of cold tea — lithe, layered and elegant on the palate with complex chewy red currant fruits interspersed with spice. Delicious.
One of the excellent producers in the Tindal-Searsons ‘Anteprima 2018’ — order by Feb 28 (in bond price €29.67). Crushed red berry fruit aromas with hints of smoke and coffee, rounded and supple on the palate, concentrated and elegant. The 2018 is a little softer but both have a long life ahead. I also loved the more floral ‘Gianetto’ and the darker fruited ‘Lazzairasco’.
Wide Street Brewing is based in Ballymahon in Longford and uses traditional methods with open-top fermenters, and specialises in Brettanomyces beers. I hate Brett (Brettanomyces)
in wine but love it in beer for some reason (cf Belgian Lambic and Geuze). Wide Street’s beers are unfiltered, unpasteurised and can-conditioned with Champagne yeast.
Mill Pils is double-dry hopped with Hallertauer-Mittelfrueh and brewed with Château Pilsner and Cara pils malts. Pouring a hazy light gold with solid citrus tinged classic pils aromas, creamy and textured on the palate with bright bittering hop flavours — flashes of lemon pith and citrus and lingering hop notes leaving a bone-dry palate. Brilliant.
