Thursday Club with talk RADIO: Great Value Italian Wines

Today on the Thursday Club with talkRADIO, we sing the praises of three Italian wine grapes you might not have heard of but certainly need to be tasted: Fiano, Nero D’Avola and Primitivo. They also often make wines that are fantastic value too, like these three below.

All wines this week have been sent courtesy of Corney & Barrow , who also happen to be doing a celebrity wine tasting tonight (May 13th) at 8pm to raise money for hospitality. See more here on that.

Fiano Masseria Bianca 2018

The white grape of Southern Italy is Fiano, which makes universally loveable white wines that combine a citrussy freshness with riper, tropical notes of nectarine and pineapple.  This one is grown on limestone-rich soils near the Ionian Sea in Puglia, which gives it a particular freshness and cool slick of chalkiness. Campania is the main Italian region for this grape but you can find i elsewhere like Puglia and Sicily too. If you like un-oaked, new world Chardonnay.

Find it here for £10.25 from Corney & Barrow.

Mucchietto IGT Primitivo del Salento 2019

The Primitivo grape is said to be the old cousin of Zinfandel, which is famous over in California for making equally rich and brooding reds. It thrives in its Puglian homeland in Italy, where it makes wines that are particularly ripe, figgy, soft and juicy, often with notes of chocolate dipped cherry, sweet spice and beeswax. This is the comfort blanket of Italian red wine styles. If you like red Zinfandel, you’ll like this.

Find it here for £10.25 from Corney & Barrow.

Cipollina IGT Rosso Terre Siciliane 2018

For this wine, we head over to Sicily where the native Nero d’Avola grape rules the roost for rustic, easy-drinking and inexpensive red wines. This one by Cipollina is Nero d’Avola dominant with a cheeky splash of Syrah. Brooding and dark red, thanks partly to the sun’s heat, it has notes of rich, baked cherry pie, warm spice, plum and violets. The perfect party or barbecue wine, it’s a crowd pleaser that looks and tastes much smarter than its price tag would suggest.  If you like Shiraz /Syrah, you’ll like this.

Find it here for £8.50 from Corney & Barrow.

Spring Reds: Kevin O'Sullivan on Talk Radio

Today, Helena spoke to Kevin O’Sullivan on talkRADIO about some perfect Easter and spring time, red wines. Fancy a soft Pinot Noir with your Sunday lamb, or how about a bright and breezy País with your barbecue? And don’t forget the failsafe match for chocolate: Port. Here are the three they tasted today.

Polemico País, Viña Laurent, Itata Valley, Chile, 2019.

País is an ancient grape variety making a resurgence, produced here in Chile's cool, Southern Itata Valley from 150 year-old ungrafted vines. Rustic, aromatic and supple, Polemico oozes earthy, red cherry fruit with a touch of toffee. Very easy drinking. A great choice for a barbecue.

RRP £12.25 from Corney & Barrow

Nielson Pinot Noir, Santa Barbara County, USA, 2017.

Santa Barbara in California is famous for silky, wild strawberry-scented Pinot Noirs with a cool minerality thanks to the area’s close proximity to the sea. This is your ‘Sideways’ Pinot; floral and aromatic, with crisp acidity, vibrant fruit and a gentle, mineral finish.

RRP £22.95 from Slurp.co.uk

Fonseca Bin 27, Reserve Port, NV.

Bin 27 is a reserve Port that has seen extended wood ageing to make it ready to drink upon release. It’s a blend from several vintages and has a deep ruby colour, with intense, blackberry, cassis, cherry and plum aromas and flavours. Luscious and velvety, it's great with tangy raspberry dishes or dark chocolate.

RRP £12.95 75cl from The Whisky Exchange, Majestic, Virgin Wines, Wine Rack & others.

See what else Helena has tasted on talkRADIO with Kevin O’Sullivan with Mike Graham, here, here and here.

Fantastic Wine Gifts, Subscriptions & Experiences

We love our wine and have been spoiled for choice this year with the wonderful bottles we have tasted. Here’s a selection of some fantastic gift packages, experiences and subscriptions that really caught our eye and out taste buds, that have that extra wow factor, making them the perfect wine gift.

Wine Gift Packages

Feel Good Grapes: Brilliant Biodynamics Box

See for yourselves the upside of this winemaking ethos with this curated collection of 6 biodynamic wines. It feels great to know that the winemakers are bending over backwards to get life back into their vineyards, but it also means you get to taste fabulous, vibrant wines.

Find here: £100

Hattingley Valley - Trio Gift Box

A hatt-trick (see what we did there?) of outstanding, award-winning sparkling wines from one of the countries most awarded wineries. It includes the Classic Reserve, the Rosé 2015 and the stunning Blanc de Blancs 2013. Together, these would have been £133.50 so there’s a great saving there too. The perfect present! 

Find here: £96.47

Bellini Case  - The Wine Society

The world’s oldest, not-for-profit wine club The Wine Society is offering a huge range of gift packages, from their ‘Christmas tidings’ case, to the ’Champagne and Chocolates Case‘ and this, the ’Bellini Case‘. The Bellini case includes The Wine Society’s own excellent quality, family-produced Prosecco, together with both a rhubarb and a white peach fruit nectars from the Van Nahmen range.

Find here: Full range of gifts from £22 to £145

Celebrity Wine & Food Hampers

Pop icon Kylie Minogue and Graham Norton have released their first-ever Christmas Hampers. Kylie’s “Wild Rosé” and “Lovers” hampers feature her best selling wines, alongside culinary delights and gifts hand-picked by the Kylie herself. Graham’s Christmas hamper is for white and bubble lovers, celebrating his best-selling Sauvignon Blanc and Prosecco, accompanied by delicious food. 

Find here: From £125.00 

Barbadillo En Rama Sherry Gift Set

Pastora Mananilla Pasada En Rama is no ordinary Sherry. It was resurrected by Barbadillo back in 2015 to replicate what Sherry used to be traditionally. Bottle ‘en rama’, which means raw, this Manzanilla has had no filtering or finishing, so it keeps as much flavour and freshness as if it had just been drawn straight from the cask. You’ll get a bottle of Barbadillo Pastora En Rama, two tins of delicious Perello Gordal Pitted Olives, two sherry glasses and a gorgeously retro style box, where you can use the lid as a wall hanging! 

Find here: £35

Subscriptions

Port.Club Port subscription from Churchill’s

Port is not just for Christmas! Port.Club from Churchill’s is the ultimate gift subscription for the port curious and port lovers alike, offering a delicious, decadent quarterly surprise. Included in the membership is access to unique travel and educational experiences both in Portugal and online. The Port Packs all come with one everyday port, one special occasion port and one unique club port, selected and blended by Churchill’s founder and head winemaker Johnny Graham. As a special launch offer, anyone who buys a membership will receive one additional pack to gift to someone for Christmas worth £70! It’s an awesome way to get into one of the world’s finest and most underrated wine styles in a relaxed, totally accessible way. 12 months price £240. Quarterly price £70.

Find here: From £70

LITTLEWINE Club

This brand new company was formed by established wine trade members with a passion for organic and naturally made wines. They’re offering 4 subscription packs from £50 a month: Roots, Grower, Backstage Pass and Cosmos, with added perks such as access to winemaker tastings. Little Wine use eco-conscious packaging and gift-wrapping too, which is a bonus for us and the earth!

Find here: From £50 a month 

C&B Wine Odyssey

From one of the UK’s oldest established wine merchants who really know their stuff, send someone on a wine odyssey, with 6 bottles delivered straight to the doorstep on a pre-selected day of the month and the choice of 6 or 12 monthly payments. Subscribers also have access to tasting notes, recipes, producer videos and lots of other fun and educational content.

Find here: £160 & £240

Experiences

Champagne Experience Gifting Vouchers

Searcys have launched a range of 30-plus gift experience vouchers for use across their iconic venues, from dinner at the Gherkin, afternoon tea at Blenheim Palace or lunch at the stunning Bath Pump Rooms, among other venues all over the UK. From beautifully gift boxed single bottles of champagne to extravagant staycation tasting experiences, there’s a huge range for an epicurean. See all their gifting options and experiences below.

Find here

Wine Tasting Tour & Experience at Oastbrook in Sussex

Oastbrook is next to Bodiam Castle in the beautiful countryside of south-east England, where Wine Tasting & Vineyard Tours take place from spring to October 2021. Every tour includes a couple of hours with your very own winemaker guide, America, taking in the stunning boutique vineyards and organic farmland. Each experience rounds off with a tasting of Oastbrook wines in the heart of the picturesque Estate with complimentary handmade local cheese, biscuits and chutney. Book the tour or get the gift voucher for £25pp from Oastbrook.com. You could add a bottle of their Sparkling Rosé 2014 too for £38 while you’re at it!

Don’t forget to check out our Christmas wine, gin and whisky recommendations!

One Minute Wine Ace: Cabernet Sauvignon

You can generally presume that all professional, male rugby players have certain elements in common: they are full in body, fairly heavy and well structured. There are forwards who pack a slightly bigger punch and backs who are a tad more refined and lean, but generally speaking, you can always tell a rugby player a mile off, no matter where in the team they play. It’s the obvious build and all those purpley-black bruises that do it! And with all their years of training and experience, you can take a bet that their playing quality is going to be pretty reliable, no matter which country it is that they play for. They also tend to need a few years to chill out and mellow…

Yes, Cabernet Sauvignon is the professional rugby player of the wine world. This heavy-duty grape variety has the thickest skin of all the grapes, giving it lots of tooth-drying tannin and plenty of brawn! ‘Cabernet’, as it’s often known, is a hardy, well-structured grape that makes pretty reliable wine just about anywhere. This is why you can find it all over the world now. When at its very best, it can sometimes take a few years to mature, so bear that in mind when you’re picking one out. Look for a concentrated, dark blue-black and purple colour with distinctive, spicy blackcurrant and cedar flavours. In some cases, you’ll also spot a telltale minty or eucalyptus note, which is often a hint that it’s from a warmer climate.

CABERNET SAUVIGNON TASTING TOUR

Cabernet Sauvignon makes pretty reliable wines from many places globally, but here are four key styles to start your journey with,

Cabernet 1: Be prepared to spend some cash and head to Bordeaux, France: the Old World home of Cabernet, where it’s usually blended with Merlot among other grapes. Look for one from the Left Bank of the river Gironde for a classic earthy, cedary number that’s Cabernet dominant. Heard of Chateau Margaux? That’s a Cabernet-dominant, Left Bank Bordeaux wine.

Try: Château de Lamarque, Haut-Medoc, 2015 for £22.95 from Corneyandbarrow.com.

Cabernet 2: Compare your Bordeaux with a Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra in Australia for a fuller-bodied, juicier version with tonnes of ripe blackcurrant and a characteristic mint and eucalyptus twang. Coonawarra is one of Cabernet’s classic, New World homes. 

Try: Wakefield Jaraman Cabernet Sauvignon for £17.99 or £15.99 mix six price from Majestic.

Cabernet 3: At a similar price and standard to Bordeaux, you could also try some serious Cabernets from Napa Valley, California for a style that is somewhere between the two above: big wines made in a Bordeaux style, but with a pleasing extra dollop of fruit.

Try: Illustrious Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, £36 a bottle or £32.40 mix 6 price from Laithwaites.

Cabernet 4: For something a little more entry-level price wise, check out what they can do with Cabernet over in the warm Colchagua Valley in Chile. Here, Cabernets are about full-on, sweeter, blackcurrant-scented wines with a savory, smoky kick. You can get some great ones for £6 or so but there are also some super-serious wines coming out of Chile too. 

Try: Montes Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Chile, £9 from Coop.

Like this? Try our other One Minute Wine Ace articles on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cotes du Rhone and Sauvignon Blanc.

Tasting the Most Famous Wine in the World

Aubert de Villaine, co-director of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

What is the most famous wine in the world? There are many answers to this question, be they the best-loved grape variety, a particularly expensive brand or simply the one who spends the most on advertising…

Written originally for Luxurious Magazine, January 30th 2020

A Super Tuscan Rising Star: Tenuta di Biserno

We’re massive fans of Italian wines and Tuscany in particular holds a special place in our hearts. Helena Nicklin heads to a lesser known part of the region to get to know a very exciting wine producer…

If you’ve tried the finest wines from Tuscany, chances are that they’ve been touched by the hand of the most famous wine family in the region, if not the country: Famiglia Antinori. All those beautiful names - Ornellaia, Sassicaia, Massetto, Solaia, Tignanello - have been blessed with the Antinori magic and most of them still are. But this is not a story about the famous Tuscan region of Chianti, where wine tourism mechanics move like well-oiled machines. This is about another coastal Tuscany; a part that’s still rugged, still being discovered and gorgeously authentic called the Maremma.

What’s more, it has already formed a reputation for making wines that breaks the rules but in doing so, have created fine wines to rival the very best in the world. We’re talking about the Maremma, which is coastal Tuscany. It’s an area that splits into three sub regions: Upper, Central and South, but it’s the Upper or ‘Alta’ Maremma where the very best wines are being made. Sassicaia, Ornellaia, Massetto – yes, but there’s a new kid on the block steaming through the ranks and it’s made by Lodovico Antinori’s team at Tentua di Biserno in Bibbona.

From Bolgheri to Bibbona

Marchese Lodovico Antinori came across what would become the Biserno Estate (Tenuta di Biserno) back in 1995. Located in the Alta Maremma, just north of Bolgheri in Bibbona, the area boasts wild, sweeping landscapes, pine forests, hilltop castles and stunning views all the way down to the Tyrrheniansea. Most importantly however (for the wine in any case), the combination of this climate, cooled by the sea breeze with the unique soils of the area made the Marchese sit up and pay attention. At the time, he had been looking for land with which he could extend his beloved Ornellaia vineyards, but he soon realised that the terrain was much hillier; much stonier than it was at Ornellaia and so would need to be a separate project with different grapes. In a surprising move that some might say is a sad regret for the family, Ornellaia was sold (a long story for another time), but this now meant that Lodovico could devote time to pursuing a new story in this incredibly exciting, undiscovered terroir on just the other side of the fence.

The Birth of Biserno

In the midst of the vines, the lemon trees and olive groves and with a gorgeous infinity pool, sits the Biserno guest house. Originally destroyed in 1850, it was rebuilt in the 1950s and while not open generally to the public, the eight bedrooms can available for exclusive, prearranged visits, which can include wine tastings, personal tours of the region and cooking classes on request. Tiziana, the in-house chef buys fresh produce daily from the local market and makes food with stunning simplicity with the lightest of touches. It is the vines and the wines however that demand even closer attention.

The Biserno wines

49 acres of vines were planted at Biserno between 2001 and 2005. The clay element of the terroir particularly led Lodovico to plant Bordeaux varietals; Cabernet franc, then some Merlot with, interestingly, a generous dollop of Petit Verdot and a smattering Cabernet Sauvignon. Within these 49, there is a patch of 6 acres, which stands above the rest and is home to the star wine of the Tenuta’s stable: Biserno ‘Lodovico’.

Just like Sassicaia at the very beginning of the Super Tuscan story, Bibbona does not have its own DOC, so all wines, no matter how great, can only be called IGT (Indicazione Geographica Typica). This may change as it did for Sassicaia (Sassicaia was only granted its own DOC in 2013) but to be honest, they may not even want that. A DOC means rules after all – and we all know that Bolgheri didn’t get where it is today by following those! Here’s a look at what Tenuta di Biserno produce and where you can find them:

The Tenuta di Biserno wine range

Rosé - Sof A brand new rosé, named after Lodovico’s 21 year-old daughter Sofia who came back from travels demanding they make a dry pink. It’s made with more or less 50 % Cabernet Franc and 50% Syrah. 2017 is the first vintage and it has a very pretty, vibrant pink colour with a refreshing prickle of CO2. On the palate, bright red fruit settles to soft, strawberry cream and a saline finish.

£24.50 from Corney & Barrow and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux

Red - Insoglio del Cinghiale (The wild boar’s hideout): Always mostly Syrah (it’s the only red Biserno wine with Syrah in it). Made to be released a year after production and meant for immediate drinking. The 2016 has a lovely purple hue and a typical Syrah garrigue character; herbaceous and violet-scented with bramble fruit a touch of smoked meat. There’s a cool, saline seam running through it too, which appears in many of the Biserno wines.

£21.50 from Corney & Barrow and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux

Red - Il Pino di Biserno: A step up from Cinghiale and where Cabernet Franc starts to come into its own, with some Petit verdot, a splash of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot – like an inside-out Bordeaux blend. With a deeper colour and more complexity than Insoglio and with a year in oak barrels and 6-8 months in bottle before release, the 2015 had a generous, silky red fruitiness and spice amongst the brambles.

£42.20 - £47.95 depending on vintage from Corney & Barrow and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux

Red - ‘Biserno’

With Biserno, Lodovico put the wheels in motion for the next Tuscan icon wine. 2007 was the first vintage and the blend is predominantly Cabernet sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet franc and Petit verdot. The left banker of Biserno, as it were. You can see the vintage variations throughout the years. We tasted the following vintages:

2007: Animal, meaty and powerful. Lots of garrigue herbs. Not shy!

2008: More refined tannins; silky, with a mineral core.

2009: A warmer vintage, shown by lots of baked fruit, blackcurrant compote. Fleshy texture.

2010: Very cool, wet year creating a very elegant and cool mineral vintage that’s drinking well already. Not typical.

2015: Surprisingly drinkable given its youth. Very strawberry up front, with fine, tight tannins and secondary notes of spice just starting to show.

£95.95 - £102.95 depending on vintage from Corney & Barrow (also available in magnum and double magnum) and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux.

Red - Biserno ‘Lodovico’

The first Lodovico vines were planted in 2012 and every year made a difference.  Helped by Michel Rolland, the Marchese always has the last say on the blend. Lodovico is generally around 95% Cabernet franc with 5% Petit Verdot. The 2013 had quite long skin contact (21-28 days) and was aged for 16 m in mostly new French oak. It showed immediate ripeness of fruit with sweet spiciness, concentration, fleshy and complexity. The production is generally small (5 – 10,000 a year) depending on the vintage and it’s only made in best years. Releases so far are 07, 08, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17.

£220-£240 from Corney & Barrow (2012 also available in magnum) and by the case at Champagne & Chateaux.

By Helena Nicklin