BOTTLE STOP
Call them alternative. Call them emerging varieties. They stretch our horizons and offer a new world of tastes. We’ve matched them here with meals to suit their distinctive flavours.
The Hahndorf Hill Winery White Mischief 2017 Gruner Veltliner ($24) from the Adelaide Hills is a legendary Austrian variety, which has become a bit of a Hills regional darling.
This “entry-level” style is one of three versions they craft, including an oakmatured reserve style, GRU2 ($45), but start here for a celebration of summer fruit salad flavours – a mix of apples, pears, nectarines and even more tropical papaya, all held tight with palate-delighting acidity and a salivating chalky dusted mouthfeel. And that spicy, tangy finish sh – so much summer. Drink with Vietnamese-style quails.
The S.C. Pannell 2017 Aromatico ($30), also from m the Adelaide Hills, is a brilliant lliant mashup of exotic and more re focused varieties – gewurztraminer as the dominant partner, with riesling and pinot gris following. The gewurztraminer leads the e aromatics with familiar lychee and rose petal fragrances, which immediately puts you in a frame for Asian eats.
More textural and mouth-filling in style than n fresh and zippy, the body and palate feel encourages nourishment, suggests a tropical escape and delights the adventurous spirit. Try with pad thai.
The search for a hero white variety in the McLaren Vale region has found itself down several paths, from the long-s long-serving chenin blanc to more contemporary Italian native varieties such as fiano and v vermentino.
Winemaker W Alex Sherrah, like many m before him, has sought sou his own solution, and thrown th chenin and fiano together. t Hey presto, he has h produced the Sherrah 2017 White et Al ($25) – a smart little duet that displays zest, youthful texture and energy, and sublime salines and minerality. Delish. Perfect with crisp, fried school prawns.
Also from McLaren Vale, we have the Hither & Yon 2017 Petit Blanc ($25). Crystal clear and colourless in the glass, yet take one whiff and that ain’t water – that’s musk and rose petal and grapefruit skins, even a waft of jasmine in spring flowering.
Wash all those together and you get this delightfully fresh and spicy white – 100-per-cent muscat blanc a petit grains that is rarely seen here as such a table wine. It is more often used as a base for a lot of moscato and fortified muscat wines.
This style is crisp, with the very faintest of sweet points in the palate. Get it cold and think Asian snacks. Try with Thai sticky pork belly in betel leaf.