SNOOPING AROUND....
I have chosen to import products from Australia, a land that has always fascinated me for its vastity, which includes so many small little microzones, which usually in Europe we find in different nations.
Also, this country has a long history of winemaking, and we should go back to the middle of the 19th century.t
Australia is an Island, Continent, and Nation, so that was able (maybe had to) develop its own philosophy of production, giving value to a different type of grape and production methods.
In the same line of thoughts, I discovered South Africa, which also has a long tradition of winemaking, which at the beginning was based on fortified wines to send to the ruling countries.
I decided it was time to keep on snooping around in this amazing world...
ABOUT CAPS
An experiment conducted by Old Bridge Cellars Australian Wine Research Institute lasted 125 months - 10 years and 5 months
Just to understand each other, the screw cap (commonly called Stelvin, from the most famous brand) capable of perfect conservation, no premature oxidation, practicality and zero hint of cork or unexpected dryness.
Sealing is the strong and clear watchword that comes from the New World of wine and the screw cap would be a guarantee for producers and consumers . The synthetic corks can give way after 28 months, the others to follow.
Dr. Jamie Goode, British journalist and renowned taster, followed this experiment from outside, confirming how the tasting of the corked wine was better than others.
These caps are safe, very practical and aesthetically fine and elegant. Screw caps are good for young wines and as demonstrated also with aging labels.
Valdobbiadine Prosecco
Hints of history and disciplinary
The grape originates from the Trieste area, arrived in the Valdobbiadene area around 1786, an area that made it its climb to success.
It all starts with the first Italian wine school in Conegliano, thanks to Antonio Carpéne.
It became DOC in 1969 and subsequently passed to DOCG in 2009, when the name of the grape was changed to GLERA to protect the production area.
It is produced in the still versions (only in the Marca Trevigiana, which slowly disappears) sparkling, SURLIE or turbid, with bottled yeasts, brut sparkling wine, dry.
The DOCG area includes 15 municipalities solely in the Treviso area, with altitudes ranging from 170 meters to about 240 meters above sea level, while the DOC covers 9 provinces.
The maximum yield is 180 tonnes/hectars, given the roughness of the very steepy hills.
The harvest is done manually, then the must resulting from pressing, decants at a temp. of about 5/10 ° C for about 12 hours. Also called clarification.
Once the must is clarified, the temperature is raised up to 18/20 ° C for 20 days where the alcoholic fermentation or vinification takes place. The base wine is obtained from here.
With the addition of yeasts and sugar, in autoclaves, we pass to the second fermentation, called CHARMAT AND / OR MARTINOTTI method.
The period must not be less than 30 days, for the long Charmat or long brut method, at least 3 months.
A further stop in the bottle for 30/40 days and then it is put on the market.
Today there are also other production methods, called the long Charmat method, where fermentations that last three or four months and more often occur, the result is a dry sparkling wine or pas-dosé also called Sur Lie, capable of intoxicating with its typical scents of white flowers and apple, very pleasant and unique.
FROM THE AUSTRAL HEMISPHERE
With its approx. 6000 h of vines to date, out of about 200 producers, boasts the most important PGI in the country.
Located just above the Tropic of Capricorn, it would be equivalent to us between the Tropic of Cancer (located at the 25th parallel) and the 42nd parallel, with a continental climate, comparable to that of Bordeaux in dry years. The quantity produced in the region is equivalent to about 5% of the Australian total, with 20% considered wines of excellence. Here, the expressions are different from those known in Europe. The soil is among the oldest on the planet and is very jagged and diversified: sandy, gravelly, calcareous - siliceous, and clayey.
On the other side of the continent, a couple of hours' drive north of Sydney, in the Hunter Valley, the oldest in the country to be vinified, in 1820. Here the varieties that are the masters are the Semillon and Shiraz, while in the inland valleys, such as the Orange and Central Range, there are Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, and Chardonnay. Extended for a total of about 4,600 hectares, it is cultivated by over 150 producers. Its soils are mainly sandy and gravelly, with very arid clayey areas. Close to the hills, there are areas with rich volcanic soils. Its production covers approximately 3% of the total Australian production. -------
Wise Wine, based in the north of the M. River region, on a spike of land, boasts steep slopes to the East and West, and small plateaus surrounded by eucalyptus forests, surrounded by the Indian Ocean, with the result that the vines enjoy depending on the variety planted, the early morning sun as well as the sunset, in addition to the ocean currents, which are very important for keeping away humidity and diseases.
Cape Grace, was born from the descendants of Baron Mac Davies, (founders of the town of M. River), who still manage it today, taking care of all its phases, and boasts of being one of the smallest wineries. Considered a real pearl spread over a very few hectares and with a limited production, divided among the local varieties, with only a few exceptions on those considered international. Located more inland, where different temperatures and soils give different types of wine than the coast.
Woodlands perhaps deserves a separate chapter. The passion for Bordeaux wines pushed the founders in 1973 to buy a small plot of land thus forming one of the top five wineries in the region. Based in Wilyabrup, a sub-area of M. River, renowned for cabernet which since that day sees them engaged in producing wines from international varieties, just like in France, in fact there is no Shiraz, semillon or other typical of the region.
Brokenwood, based in Pokolbin, 120km from Sydney, was founded in 1970 by three partners, one of whom Mr, James Halliday (one of the country's leading experts and influential wine critics) is now a true ambassador of the Semillon and Shiraz varieties. , which we remember, give different expressions from area to area.
... keep snooping around under the Equator, we arrive in South Africa, where even here the first Europeans, Dutch in this case, first brought, and later developed, the cultivation of vines, dated 1679. At first almost exclusively to supply their Courts , hereinafter also for local consumption. The most planted area is located a few KM from Cape Town, near, or we could say, between the towns of Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Francshhoek, forming the golden triangle, with 100,000 hectares of vineyards. The soils are very sandy in the low areas, while on the slopes mainly gravel-rich in minerals.
L'Avenir is located in the middle of the golden triangle in the best location in the region, its vineyards enjoy both ocean and warm inland breezes. Born in 1912, immediately predestined to become one of the most prestigious and recognized for Pinotage, it has developed what is known in the country for more, the BIG 5: Prestige Terroir, Heritage, Philosophy, and Responsibility.