Triocha de Sylvian Morey, Vermentino-Grenache Blanc, Luberon, Provence France 2016
Pricing : around €23.50
Available : Terroirs of Donnybrook , Nationwide on Terroirs.ie and good off licences and wine shops
This is a brilliant example of a truly European wine, it was made at the northern edges of Southern France’s beautiful Provence region in the vast, but quite remote Luberon region.
The wine maker, Sylvian Morey comes from one of the oldest and most important winemaking dynasties in Burgundy but decided to head south to the wild Luberon to reimagine himself as a winemaker perhaps unconstrained by the weight of regional and family history.
However, old habits die hard and his approach, organic and meticulous to winemaking has shone through in his southern French wine from Bastide de Claux, so far from being everyday rustic wines, Morey has produced wines of immeasurable sophistication from a region often previously dismissed as producers of Vin de gard, or rough and ready wines destined to be sold in jugs in local restaurants.
Here we have a wine that adds to this regional cross fertilisation with a dab of internationalism as Sean and Francoise Gilley of Terroirs wine importers and shop in Dublin’s Donnybrook having worked with Sylvian to get him to produce this white and a red wine in honour of the 30th anniversary of Business to Art an orginisation dedicated to aiding creative projects and social arts projects.
The wine is quite stunning, with the vermentino and Grenache Blanc offering a depth of charm, linear crispness , but harmonious acidity and light spice in a way that will surely appeal to white wine Burgundy lovers.
Finca La Celia, Elite Blend ( Malbec-Syrah-Cabernet Franc, Uco Valley, Argentina 2015
Pricing : around €17.99
Available : Mace and Eurospar nationwide
The way forward for Argentine wines gets examined every four or five years as both political commentators and wine writers examine often yet another blip on the economic pathway that has unfortunately been Argentina’s fate.
Once again a soft economy is impacting on Argentina as a nation but thankfully things are a little more hopeful in the world of wine.
Investment from across the world tends to wobble a little during economic crisis but this winery and two others are owned by near neighbour and clear fan of Argentine wine, Chile.
The wine hails from the elevated Uco Valley and this winery is over 150 years old and one of the first to plant Malbec, Argentina’s icon wine.
Happily in a sign of good things to come, like many wine regions before them, Uco and Le Celia see a value beyond a single varietal and grow a selection of fascinating grapes from Syrah to Cabernet Franc.
Best of all they have blended these grapes with Malbec to offer a wine with a strong and complex second act. Here the Malbec is tamed and countoured by black olive like tones of Syrah and by the fragile slightly leafy Cabernet Franc grape. The resulting wine is far more than the sum of its parts it is a sophisticated balanced, dark fruited joy with a fine savoury finish that may well show the future for Argentina’s great wine story.
