AUSTRALIAN ALTERNATIVE REDS

Pirrimimma was the first winery in Australia to grow the thick skinned Petit Verdot grape.

It's renowned for being an early budding, late ripening red grape with thick skins and powerful depth of colour, flavour and weight. This late ripening dark skinned grape is originally thought to come from Bordeaux in south west France where it can often struggle to ripen fully, hence it is most commonly used as a blending component to add depth to wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Ironically, it ripens best when it is least needed, as Master of Wine Jancis Robinson writes in the bible of grape varieties, Wine Grapes. 

In the warmest, driest best years, all of the grapes that struggle to ripen (Cabernets and Petit Verdot in particular) all tend to ripen well. Another good reason for seeking out good quality Bordeaux in dry vintages.

Which leads us to the Southern Hemisphere and to South Australia where Pirramimma Wines is based and this lovely red comes from.

Volumes of small and quality is high of this supple, smooth and savoury Gamay from the Adelaide Hills winery, Ochota Barrels.  Fresh red fruit flavours are held together in a medium bodied, dry red wine made from vines planted in 1985 in the Piccadilly Valley. This is a concentrated red from a quirky grape planted in a climate that is well suited to it and made with care and attention. 

We have small volumes of Ochota Barrels wines in store at Regional. Get in quick. 

If you're a fan of a big red, try this one out for size and you'll soon be back for more. It's made by Australian winemaker Johnny Quarisa, who may have an Italian background but he rocks a definite Argentinian vibe in this deliciously dry, dark and juicy Malbec. It's made from grapes grown in South Australia, a region better known for Shiraz, which also fits the big dark juicy red style. 

This is an outstanding, velvety red which totally over delivers. Long, smooth and delicious.

Bold, rich and dry with powerfully fruity aromas and depths of deliciousness. This wine is a super intensely purple hued red made from Alicante Bouchet, a red fleshed grape, which ripens to surprisingly low sugar levels and lends itself to having a modest level of alcohol with stacks of flavour intensity. Alicante is a cross of Petit Bouschet (itself a cross of Teinturier du Cher and Aramon) with Grenache. It makes wine that tastes of cherries and spice.

We love the interesting different take on light red vs rose that this wine offers. A must try in summer. Serve chilled.

Rockford Wines' legacy

Rockford Wines is an icon itself and a relatively new one, established in 1971 by Robert O'Callaghan, who has forged a reputation for preserving winemaking tradition and saving many of the world's oldest grape vines from being pulled up in the Australian Government's vine pull schemes of the 1970s and 1980s.

The Rockford vintage shed houses equipment from 50 to 100 years ago, which was discarded by other wineries as modernisation took over.

TASTING NOTE 

Vibrant ruby red colour. with purple hues. Lifted aroma of redcurrants, cranberry, violet florals, leather and spice, hints of olive and chocolate flecks. It is young and a little brooding, slightly restrained, yet delicate.  A juicy and textural front palate is followed by plum, mouthcoating gravelly tannin that drives the length of the wine and mulberries dominating the mid palate. The wine opens up beautifully with time in the glass. A hint of savouriness and graphite bring yet more complexity. Made in a playful but serious style that suits a wide range of dishes or perfect on Its own. 

VINEYARD 

Cabernet Franc for this wine was sourced from 1988 plantings in the Isolation Ridge vineyard at Frankland Estate. The vineyard sits on an undulating northern and eastern facing slope on ancient duplex soils of ironstone gravel and loam over a clay sub-soil. It is certified organic farmed since 2009 and this is reflected in the depth and concentration of fruit flavours. The vines are trained on a Vertical Shoot Position (VSP) trellis system to enhance sunlight penetration of the canopy and optimize ripening conditions.  Cabernet Franc plays a huge role in our vineyard being the main component of our Olmos Reward, we find it suits our vineyard and region the best out of the Bordeaux varieties.

VINIFICATION 

Fruit was harvested in ideal conditions and fermented in shallow stainless steel open fermenters. The fruit is hand plunged to gently extract the tannin, keep the ferment as even as possible and maintain fruit purity. The wine is pressed off and aged on lees in 500L French oak puncheons and 1500L foudre for 10 months before bottling

Samuel's Gorge Winery is in McLaren Vale; a wine region south of Adelaide, which is a hot bed of experimentation for classic European grape varieties such as Tempranillo, the great red grape of Spain.

This wine is dry, full bodied and complex with secondary flavour notes of freshly roasted coffee beans, liquorice and ripe, dark fruit notes. It drinks well now and can age for up to 10 years.

Winery notes (2021 Vintage)
"Organically grown and made. Vibrant cherry red in colour. Fresh lifted young berries, early season plums, dried herbs and savoury olive characters give a wine of amazing perfume. It?s bold and lush on the palate. Lovely cherry and chocolate characters interact with fine gravelly tannins, salty liquorice flavours and a sweet core of fruit. This leads to a wine of balance with a bright crisp finish. Touriga Nacional as a variety offers good cellaring potential, will be good to see where this goes In a few years.

Fruit was harvested in ideal conditions and fermented in shallow stainless steel open fermenters. The fruit is hand plunged to gently extract the tannin, keep the ferment as even as possible and maintain fruit purity. The wine is pressed off and aged on lees in older 500L French oak puncheons for 10 months. Unfiltered and unfined It goes to bottle."

This is one of our best sellers for so many reasons, including it's attractively affordable price tag and consistent high quality winemaking from South Australian winemaker Johny Quarisa, who makes this smooth, fruity red made from Petit Syrah.

The warm Mediterranean climate in South Australia provides great ripening conditions for the late ripening Petit Sirah grape, which is also known as Durif. This grape is a cross between Syrah and Peloursin and was developed by the late French vine nurseryman, Dr Durif, whose aim was to make a disease resistant red grape variety which retained ripe flavours and body. 

Melee from Paulmara Estates is a red wine from the Barossa Valley, South Australia. made with a blend of Sangiovese, Shiraz, and Malbec, with a 75%, 20%, and 5% ratio respectively.

This wine offers a variety of fine spices including mint, dried herbs and cedar on the nose which lead to a palate of sweet red fruits  - plum, wild strawberry and blueberry, bolstered with powdery tannins. The Sangiovese provides a fresh acid line, while the Shiraz provides ripe fruit density and richness. The Malbec provides floral notes and red and blue fruits

Nero d'Avola is Sicily's most popular red grape (and the island's most planted one) and is characterised by flavours of ripe black plums, intense blue fruit and licorice like aromas. It is rare to find good Nero d’Avola elsewhere but this new Australian rendition is convincingly Mediterranean like in style. Full bodied, black in colour and beautifully complex in taste.

Spanish inspired, Australian made Tempranillo from the adventurous Chaffey Bros brand. This dry Aussie red is smooth, soft textured and tastes of ripe fruit flavours of red and dark plums, stewed and dried. It's made from two vineyards in the Barossa Valley, South Australia, one of them with 70+ years of vine age, which comes through in this wine's superb concentration of flavour - older vines are thought to deliver richer flavours. 

The inspiration for La Conquista comes from Spain's most famous red wine, Rioja, which is usually a blend. This is also a blend and uses the same grapes as found in Rioja - namely, Tempranillo with Grenache and Graciano (from the cooler Eden Valley) for support. 

The wine is named after the 1811 Battle of the Barrosa in Cad?z.