Duca del Salento, Salice Salentino Riserva, Puglia Italy 2010
Around €15
Available from good Independent Off Licences including: Martins Of Fairview, Marino Mart online at martinsofflicence.ie; Redmonds of Ranelagh; McCabes of Mount Merrion, Blackrock, County Dublin; Baggot Street Wines, Baggot Street, D4; McCambridges, Galway and Jus de Vine Portmarnock
This is a pretty luscious and frankly opulent and spicy wine from one of the most ambitious wineries in Puglia, the heel on the boot that is Italy’s map profile. About 50km inland from the port city of Brindisi on the Adriatic this is baking hot territory amongst the hottest and driest location in Italy. Winemaking in Puglia is a world away from Italian wine making in say Chianti or Borolo. It is a 1000km south of Borolo, in Puglia the problem for grape growers is over ripeness. Many wines from the Salice Salentino region can feel baked or even a little soupy as the high heat leads to overwhelming alcohol and undefined fruit, but thankfully not here.
A soft clay and limestone soil acts like a sponge and a clever way of training their vines means the producers here have kept decent freshness, lovely rasping spice, but a white pepper spice not an exotic spice.
The grape here is one to watch out for Negroamaro, which often makes very firm, tart wine, but here with Malvasia Nera is given body and black-fruited sweetness. This is a luscious, dense spicy wine.
Louis Jadot, Couvent des Jacobins Chardonnay, AC Bourgogne, 2013,
Around €20
Available from good Independent Off Licences including: World Wide Wijnes, Waterford; Mitchell and Sons, CHQ, IRSC and Glasthule Road, Glasthule; Martins Of Fairview, Marino Mart online at martinsofflicence.ie; Redmonds of Ranelagh; McCabes of Mount Merrion, Blackrock, County Dublin; Baggot Street Wines, Baggot Street, D4; McCambridges, Galway and Jus de Vine Portmarnock
This is an example of why Burgundy can never be written out of any open minded wine lovers heart even at price points that would normally be the preserve of the New World.
This is a gorgeous, honeyed and succulent Chardonnay with enough zest and cut to make even those who love their Chardonnay teeth janglingly acidic to take a second look. The secret here is using both methods of Chardonnay production with one part of the years production put into expensive oak barrels and the other into modern stainless steel tanks.
The producer Louis Jadot are in their third century of production and they have access to some very well regarded plots and vineyards all along Burgundy’s tenderloin Cote D’Or, Cote Chalonnais and Saint Verand from where these grapes are sourced.
The barrel work and extra effort in the cellar pays off handscomely with a rush of toasted brioche, hints of hazelnut, apricot, custard like vanillin touches and a clean lemon fringed finish. In a word, delicious.
