A twilight and early evening dinner wine and, as the full experience unfolded, quite a journey wine. Vermentino, according to knowledgeable sources, originated in Italy in Sardegna Liguria. The variety is most prolific there and also in Corsica a Mediterranean Island that is physically closer to Italy but is politically French, but we won’t get into that topic here!
Vermentino has now been widely planted in Australia. It is often made in a crisp, racy style where the grapes spend time in steel tanks and have no relationship with oak. This one is different and it’s more complex education gives us a more complex wine. There is a creaminess from some barrel fermentation in second use French oak and a textural presence from time on full skins.
Almost clear but a very, very light straw colour in the glass. A big powerful bouquet for a white wine with pears, nectarines, limes, lime blossom other citrus blossoms and florals – fragrant is the go here and the wine unleashes this with effusive gusto. The palate is a walk through an orchard and then a roll in the gardens soil followed by a cleansing refreshing mouth tingling imbibing so you can do the journey all over again. This orchard has pears and nectarines, peaches and limes, some cucumber vines seem to be growing among the fruit trees, there could be a small dairy here as well as there is a lovely textural creaminess that builds as you approach the mid palate, but then the orchards soil begins to embrace you with it’s delightful mineral flavours and, on one of the trees there’s a small beehive that leaks just a parsimonious amount of honey which is gone in a flash as, not to be outdone, the fruits reassert themselves by revealing a little dry tang that you sensed on the bouquet but are just a little uncertain until you are nearly at the far end of the orchard and when you are there choice has disappeared into an immediate resolution to loop through the entire experience again.
We didn’t have any seafood in the fridge so we improvised. The wine was consumed with a gluten free pasta to which we added coconut yoghurt, fresh rosemary leaves, chorizo, some Stanthorpe Boss Meats bacon, black kalamata olives and a little pink Himalayan salt. Although we salivated enviously at the thought of Ray Costanzo’s seafood marinara the wine seemed very pleased to compliment and enhance the meal we had made.
Tasted: Friday 5th June, 2020 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 12.5%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $35
Suggested Drinking Window: now to 2024
Winemaker: Ray Costanzo
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