Wine of the Week

You can listen live to News Talk 106 FM via their web page.

Today (17/8/07) on the Moncreiff show on News Talk 106FM we'll be looking at the wines of Sicily and seeing if its possible to discuss them and not mention the M word, Sicily's most famous export and I don't mean Marsala.

There’s a great line in the wonderful jJust William kids books where he wakes up one day and decides he’s like to invent something, but then he thinks about it and realizes everything has already been invented – cars, planes, electricity, penicillin and more so he goes off and gets up to some mischief instead. 

The wine world feels like that too at times for those who are looking for something new. It’s all been done – the European stuff was all set up centuries ago and we know all about Australia, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa and the like, so lets just go and get a bottle of something familiar.  Wrong; there are a never-ending stream of new wines and new regions and re-invented regions if you look a little harder. 

Take Sicily for example, when I started leaning about wine it was known for making Marsala and a large percentage of the EU’s wine lake. But today it’s undergoing something of a re-invention or revolution and turning out some genuinely interesting wines at keen prices.

It has a lot going for it. It’s hot and it has rocky, mountainous and volcanic terrain, so there’s also altitude, which tempers heat as do sea breezes. Throw in some genuinely interesting and exciting native grape varieties and convincing versions of international ones and you have the potential for really good wines when modern technology is added to the mix. Finally, it’s big. Until four or five years ago it made more wine than Australia so there’s scale enough to keep prices affordable and diversity enough to make things interesting. 

During the show we’ll taste three wines, the first of which is Inycon Fiano 2005, from Dunnes at €7.99. This is a previous winerepublic.com white wine of the year and if memory serves me has an attractive mix of orangey fruit and creamy nougat like nuttiness and rates 87/100, which is very high for a wine at this price. 

Searson’s supplied us with an impressive red called Mazzei Zisola 2005 at €17, a wine made from Nero d’Avola, aged 10 months in small oak barrels, which I’ll be tasting for the first time on air and so will add a note and score here later. 

Finally for those looking for a cheaper red we have Feudo Arancio Nero d’Avola 2005 from O’Briens at €9.49, but they have a sale until Sunday offering 20% off Italian wines if you buy four or more bottles. Will post a tasting note here later. 

Other sources of good Sicilian wine include M & S, who may still have a sale on (they were all 20% off last week), Oddbins with the Cusumano range and Italian specialist www.selectie, who also supply independents. 

William was wrong, when he thought there was nothing left to invent and similarly the discoveries never stop in the world of wine either.

listen live to News Talk 106-108 FM

Today (17/8/07) on the Moncreiff show on News Talk 106FM we'll be looking at the wines of Sicily and seeing if its possible to discuss them and not mention the M word, Sicily's most famous export and I don't mean Marsala.

There’s a great line in the wonderful jJust William kids books where he wakes up one day and decides he’s like to invent something, but then he thinks about it and realizes everything has already been invented – cars, planes, electricity, penicillin and more so he goes off and gets up to some mischief instead. 

The wine world feels like that too at times for those who are looking for something new. It’s all been done – the European stuff was all set up centuries ago and we know all about Australia, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa and the like, so lets just go and get a bottle of something familiar.  Wrong; there are a never-ending stream of new wines and new regions and re-invented regions if you look a little harder. 

Take Sicily for example, when I started leaning about wine it was known for making Marsala and a large percentage of the EU’s wine lake. But today it’s undergoing something of a re-invention or revolution and turning out some genuinely interesting wines at keen prices.

It has a lot going for it. It’s hot and it has rocky, mountainous and volcanic terrain, so there’s also altitude, which tempers heat as do sea breezes. Throw in some genuinely interesting and exciting native grape varieties and convincing versions of international ones and you have the potential for really good wines when modern technology is added to the mix. Finally, it’s big. Until four or five years ago it made more wine than Australia so there’s scale enough to keep prices affordable and diversity enough to make things interesting. 

During the show we’ll taste three wines, the first of which is Inycon Fiano 2005, from Dunnes at €7.99. This is a previous winerepublic.com white wine of the year and if memory serves me has an attractive mix of orangey fruit and creamy nougat like nuttiness and rates 87/100, which is very high for a wine at this price. 

Searson’s supplied us with an impressive red called Mazzei Zisola 2005 at €17, a wine made from Nero d’Avola, aged 10 months in small oak barrels, which I’ll be tasting for the first time on air and so will add a note and score here later. 

Finally for those looking for a cheaper red we have Feudo Arancio Nero d’Avola 2005 from O’Briens at €9.49, but they have a sale until Sunday offering 20% off Italian wines if you buy four or more bottles. Will post a tasting note here later. 

Other sources of good Sicilian wine include M & S, who may still have a sale on (they were all 20% off last week), Oddbins with the Cusumano range and Italian specialist www.selectie, who also supply independents. 

William was wrong, when he thought there was nothing left to invent and similarly the discoveries never stop in the world of wine either.

listen live to News Talk 106-108 FM

Today (17/8/07) on the Moncreiff show on News Talk 106FM we'll be looking at the wines of Sicily and seeing if its possible to discuss them and not mention the M word, Sicily's most famous export and I don't mean Marsala.

There’s a great line in the wonderful just William kids books where he wakes up one day and decides he’s like to invent something, but then he thinks about it and realizes everything has already been invented – cars, planes, electricity, penicillin and more so he goes off and gets up to some mischief instead. 

The wine world feels like that too at times for those who are looking for something new. It’s all been done – the European stuff was all set up centuries ago and we know all about Australia, Chile, New Zealand and South Africa and the like, so lets just go and get a bottle of something familiar.  Wrong; there are a never-ending stream of new wines and new regions and re-invented regions if you look a little harder. 

Take Sicily for example, when I started leaning about wine it was known for making Marsala and a large percentage of the EU’s wine lake. But today it’s undergoing something of a re-invention or revolution and turning out some genuinely interesting wines at keen prices.

nIt has a lot going for it. It’s hot and it has rocky, mountainous and volcanic terrain, so there’s also altitude which tempers heat as do see breezes. Throw in some genuinely interesting and exciting native grape varieties and convincing versions of international ones and you have the potential for really good wines when modern technology is added to the mix. Finally, it’s big. Until four or five years ago it made more wine than Australia so there’s scale enough to keep prices affordable and diversity enough to make things interesting. 

During the show we’ll taste three wines, the first of which is Inycon Fiano 2005, from Dunnes at €7.99. This is a previous winerepublic.com white wine of the year and if memory serves me has an attractive mix of orangey fruit and creamy nougat like nuttiness and rates 87/100, which is very high for a wine at this price. 

Searson’s supplied us with an impressive red called Mazzei Zisola 2005 at €17, a wine made from Nero d’Avola, aged 10 months in small oak barrels, which I’ll be tasting for the first time on air and so will add a note and score here later. 

Finally for those looking for a cheaper red we have Feudo Arancio Nero d’Avola 2005 from O’Briens at €9.49, but they have a sale until Sunday offering 20% off Italian wines if you buy four or more bottles. Will post a tasting note here later. 

Other sources of good Sicilian wine include M & S, who may still have a sale on (they were all 20% off last week), Oddbins with the Cusumano range and Italian specialist www.selectie, who also supply independents. 

William was wrong, when he thought there was nothing left to invent and similarly the discoveries never stop in the world of wine either.

listen live to News Talk 106-108 FM

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