‘Tis the season

David Ridge reviews four wines ideal for Christmas Day and the festive period, in general. These wines, which are delicious and really food friendly, will perform whatever the weather and are benchmarks of their type.

2012 JOHNSTON OAKBANK SAUVIGNON BLANC
Adelaide Hills, SA
RRP:  $17
johnston-oakbank.com.au
In contrast to the 2011 vintage here (especially in SA) which was a disappointment to put it mildly, 2012 provided wonderful grapes, often in the best condition and with the most promise possibly ever. So if you combine the vintage with a cool vineyard at 400 metres in the central Adelaide Hills, and throw in the winemaking talent of the canny and careful David O’Leary, this is what you get. It’s an immediately attractive white, with juiciness, freshness and life the most noticeable things and the actual varietal is almost a nice secondary player. For me this is often important with Sauvignon Blanc, which can sometimes appear a bit ‘obvious’ – just too strong and maybe single-dimensional. This gorgeous little thing is glowing fresh, nicely shaped, and has all the best (‘Hills) Sauvignon characters: nice fresh tropical fruits, along with little herb and mineral. Sounds like the white for a bit of fish on the Chrissy-time table?

2011 CASTELLO DI NEIVE LANGHE ARNEIS ‘MONTEBERTOTTO’
Piedmont, Italy
RRP: $42
lacantina.com.au
Here’s a wine to bolster a flagging faith in Arneis. No matter if they hailed from here, or like most of the contemporaries of this one, from the variety’s heartland of Piedmont in north west Italy, it seems the hype and expectations surrounding this once-endangered grape exceed the times it provides the satisfaction, or more, that a ‘next big thing’ should provide. The good ones are lovely – the ordinary ones are just more plentiful. Then along comes this wine. This is what can be done and this is how speccy Arneis can taste (and look and smell). The intense but gregarious Italo Stupino, who occupies the awesome castle that dominates the hilltop town of Neive in the Barbaresco zone, planted this Montebertotto vineyard to Arneis over 30 years ago, making him a pioneer of the grape’s resurrection. The fruit depth is remarkable, and is represented by delicious notes of lemon leaf, honey and a spice and this goes on to be an essay in the coexistence of power and balance. The finish is long, lively and intriguing.

2010 S. C. PANNELL GRENACHE
McLaren Vale, SA
RRP: $55
pannell.com.au 
I’m sorry, (actually, not really) that my benchmarks for many styles of wine are European – and for Grenache that’s certainly the case. I might also be the last in the wine reviewing caper to get around to this now famous wine, but there’s no doubt this wonderful, fascinating red has joined a handful of great wines made from McLaren Vale Grenache. Great is a deliberate, and I hope for me, a sparingly used term. A champion of this variety, and long a frustrated one at that, winemaker Steve Pannell is readily familiar with Grenache in its best incarnations: from Chateauneuf du Pape and Gigondas of southern France and Spain’s Priorat and Rioja. He’s long known and has been working to show that McLaren Vale old-vine Grenache is so much more than juicy, chubby and cheery. Here it all comes together in a spectacularly complex and shapely red, where the spices and the berries are abundant, but so elegantly shaped and savoury. I will have this on Christmas Day.

2011 LA MORANDINA MOSCATO D’ASTI
Piedmont, Italy
lacantina.com.au
A nice cold glass of good Moscato is a great way to see out, or even kick off the Christmas Day indulgence. Real Moscato, like this, is a particular creature, and it’s actually made from the variety Moscato – unlike most of the things being called Moscato here in Oz. It’s just that we had plenty (of hectares of Moscato – usually known here as White Frontignac), once upon a time, but we pulled most of it out. With the resurgence in appreciation of the delicious spicy, grapey and lightly bubbly (and low in alcohol) white, that trend is reversing, but demand well exceeds supply of real Moscato. This one is from a specialist in the style, from vines between 60 and 80 years old and very distinctive and characteristic of its terroir of Castiglione Tinella between Alba and Asti in northeast Italy. There are hints of sage along with melon and almost minty fruits. The depth of an authentic Moscato can be quite a discovery and you might enjoy spending a bit of time on a glass of this.