On a recent trip to the King Valley, I got caught up with the latest Pizzini wines. The family always offer a warm welcome at their cellar door. And if you are interested in food, then make sure that you time your visit with a course with Katrina Pizzini.
To read more about the family, click here & here.
Here are the notes of the wines tasted.
Pizzini Prosecco 2013 $19.50
A prosecco with a tight backbone structure. I enjoy its lemon balm, floral and panetone character. It is drier in style, has intensity and freshness and finishes with a racy minerality. A classic summer drinking fizz that you will come back to again and again. Particularly good with seafood and some little nibbly bits on the back deck.
Pizzini White Roman 2012 $18.50
A Riesling and Pinot Gris blend with ripe peach and citrus rounded out with fragrant blossom. It is crisp, fresh with a firm citrus and mineral backbone. Long and good drinking.
Pizzini Verduzzo 2012 $22
If you are searching for an alternative to savvy blanc, this is a wine of interest. The 2012 is a fleshy solidsy peach fruit verduzzo with some soft butter. A bigger mouthful that delivers abundant fruit along with refreshment. Drink lightly chilled and with friends.
Pizzini Sangiovese Shiraz 2012 $17.50
A lighter red that comes into its own in the warmth of summer. It has ripe red cherry and raspberry with more than a hint of cinnamon. It is fresh and peppery on the palate. A juicy Italian hybrid that has a smoothness to its soul. Enjoy with food.
Pizzini Sangiovese 2012 $26.00
This is Pizzini’s youthful 100% sangiovese and is a juicy young red offering cherry, red currant, cinnamon spice and pastry crust. An elegantly styled red, perhaps lighter than some of the McLaren Vale examples of the grape but in no way a poor cousin. It has the structure to cope well with food.
Pizzini Canaiolo 2012 $24
The King Valley has an unusual resident perhaps better known in Chianti than Australia, one ripe with blueberry, plum and spice. Some grainy tannins support the fresh fruit weight. This bold red needs some good tomato based meaty dishes to smooth it out but it is good drinking if you can find it.
Pizzini Il Barone 2009 $45
A smooth blend of Sangiovese, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon from the King Valley. Powerful plum, blackcurrant fruit melds with lashings of rich cinnamon and caramel oak. While there is plenty of oak at the moment, there is also plenty of fruit. It is soft, it is smooth, it is fuller bodied. It finishes long with the grip of youth. One for the cellar I think.
Pizzini Nebbiolo 2010 $48
If you cannot stretch to buy the Coronamento or want something that is a little less mature this is the nebbi for you. Spiced plum, cherry, toast and spice is lifted with some rose fragrance and joined by a little tobacco on the palate particularly on the finishing notes.
This is a wine to sit and contemplate. Soft fruited, very long with finely grained tannins. I like this Nebbiolo for its texture and well judged ripeness. The Pizzini family does do Nebbiolo well.
Pizzini Rubacuori Sangiovese 2005 $110
The big hitter of Sangiovese in Australia and just hitting its stride at nine years old. Big hitter in charm and eloquence rather than alcohol and power that is. Rich coffee, chocolate, cherry fruit and tobacco leaves with a minerality that adds another layer of interest.
This is a wine that takes a while to unfurl in the glass, it does come together (a decant helps) and that fruit gets back into balance with the oak. Then, it is elegantly proportioned with some chewy tannins amid a long layered finish that lasts for more than a minute. I am eager to see what this wine looks like in another 5 years and maybe then another 5 after that.
Pizzini Coronamento Nebbiolo 2005 $135
Nebbiolo is a variety that has very few rivals outside of its Piedmonte home in the north of Italy. Australia is one country in the New Wine World that has been developing this variety with any success and the Pizzini families are quietly but confidently leading the way.
The Coronamento has the typical dried rose petals sitting prettily amongst plums, cherries, liquorice, garden herbs and rich banana, cedary oak. A powerful wine with dusty grainy tannins and a fuller body that has resonant and expressively long flavour along the palate with supple tannins that are a little dry on the finish making it a great accompaniment for food. Drink it over the next five years while it keeps its prettiness.
After much discussion with friends who question the price, to my mind to get an Australian Nebbiolo this impressive is definitely not to be undervalued. Yes, there is Barolo and Barbaresco for under $100 around, but I still consider that while this wine has a $100+ price tag it is not too highly priced.
It is a variety that is not common in Australia and Pizzini have shown that they can give this variety the polish that it needs to be a benchmark of what this variety can do here. Besides which, you are also purchasing a wine that has 8 to 9 years of maturity on it before release. There are plenty of shirazs out there that offer less in the way of value for a similar price or, dare I say it, a price much higher than this.
0 Comments