Monday, 13 April 2009
2006 Nero d'Avola
A lamb dish over the Easter long weekend had strong Italian overtones, so when Hughesy went looking something to go with it, it seemed only natural to look for a wine with some connection to the Mediterranean.
I was about to open a bottle of the excellent and very tasty d’Arenberg The Stump Jump GSM when I weakened. I’d more or less planned on keeping the contents of both Brown Brothers boxes intact until ‘Er Overseas made it back from the Land of the Rising Sun, but, like the cat, curiosity got the better of me.
After all, I’m a sucker for new grape varieties and Nero d'Avola was definitely a new one as far as Hughesy’s concerned. Mind you, if you’ve ever had a Sicilian Marsala there’s every chance you’ve encountered the variety since it can go into the blend.
A bit of research reveals that Nero d'Avola (which translates as Black of Avola) is Sicily’s most important red grape variety and is particularly suited to hot dry climates. Given those factors you’d expect it would be a natural fit for Australian conditions in areas where water is at a premium.
One would guess Brown Brothers have serious plans for the variety since they’ve opted to import the wine from Villa Tonino in Sicily rather than adopting their usual practice of experimental plantings, experimentation in the kindergarten winery and eventual Cellar Door release to see how it goes in the market.
Avola is in south-eastern Sicily and for many years the variety was more or less confined to the area though it has recently spread into other parts of the island.
The variety is often compared to Shiraz, producing big wines with sweet tannins and plum and pepper characters. Those wines could nudge 18% alcohol by volume which explains their use to add body to lighter styles from France and northern Italy.
More recently, changes to viticulture practices, harvesting at night and other techniques aiming to retain flavour without going overboard on the alcohol/volume ratio has seen the emergence of a lighter drink now style which is where the wine under review (at 13%) seems to slot in.
Deep red in the glass, with a ripe peppery nose and rounded herb, spice and berry flavours in the mouth, as a match for a lamb and cannellini bean pot roast it was pretty much spot on, and since there are leftovers involved, it’s tempting to crack the other bottle when they get knocked over.
Diplomacy, however, suggests that there should be a bottle left when ‘Er Overseas morphs back into ‘Er Indoors, so I think it’ll have to be a case of reverting to the original plan and turn to The Stump Jump. When they get demolished, at $13.40 cellar door ($12.06 Epicurean Club) there’s definitely a case for ordering a a dozen of these little devils when I’ve got a bit of room in the wine rack...