Freeman Vineyards 2005 Secco Rondinella Corvina (Hilltops)

The 2005 release of the Freeman Rondinella Corvina blend sports a different label to the earlier vintages I have tried, and a new name: Secco. It certainly is a dry, and drying wine, as much from extract as tannins, with fruit currently in more of a supporting than leading role.

This wine uses a CSIRO built solar/gas dryer at Prunevale to dry a portion of Brian Freeman's fuit, along the lines of an amarone wine. As well as using two of the traditional amarone varieties (rondinella and corvina) that are little planted in Australia, the partial drying of the fruit modifies the tannins, producing a characteristic bittersweet and dark chocolate profile. The drying takes around 30% of the wet-weight out of the fruit, concentrating juice and sugars, as well as affecting the tannins in stalks, stems and skins.

From this tasting, the wine needs a few years to come into itself, but was still an excellent accompaniment to beef cheeks braised in red wine, served with a saffron risotto.

Australian sangiovese and pork neck ragu

The 2009 Coriole sangiovese is a wine I've looked at a few times now. It has the goods: price point, fruit, clarity of expression, tannins... It also managed to look good on night three after opening, tasted with spaghetti and a ragu of pork neck, bay leaves and tomato. Interesting to note, a character of beetroot and earth really showed itself on night three. This release could well have the legs to develop over the next ten years.

Hardly a deathmatch tasteoff, but the last glass of the Coriole was had alongside a 2005 Blue Metal Vineyard sangiovese cabernet sauvignon, from the NSW Southern Highlands. The comparative tasting made the cab sav component very apparent, as you might expect. The blend looked a little oxidised and tired, but with fresher fruit underneath. Outclassed, but not disgraced, and still a good foil for the pasta and ragu.

Pork in milk / Maiale al Latte

There are versions of pork cooked in milk in several cuisines I know of, but I tend to think of it as an Italian dish. It is something I have never got around to making before, so when planning to cook a dinner for family in Sydney last night, thought it would be good to try. The objective with the dish is to slowly cook out a piece of pork (often a rolled loin with the rind off, but I used a large piece of pork neck) in a sauce of milk, herbs, garlic, sometimes onion and lemon zest. The length of the cooking both breaks down the meat to a shredding texture and causes curds to form in the reducing milk. The texture of the finished sauce - balancing liquid and creamy-solid textures - is the point of the dish, I think.

Anyway, a quick description:

Take a large piece of pork neck, season and brown in oil in a large pan. You need more than light brown colour, but not too dark. Get the excess oil and dark bits out of the pan after the pork is taken out. Chuck in a half ounce of butter and two chopped onions. When softened a little, add five peeled and halved cloves of garlic plus three fresh bay leaves and cook for one minute. Have 4-6 cups of full cream milk warm while frying and add to the onions and bring to the boil.

Now you have a choice. You can add the pork and juices, plus large pieces of lemon zest (at least 8) to the pan, put a lid on ajar and let it simmer for 3-4 hours. Or, tip the sauce into a good-sized baking dish, add pork and juices, scatter lemon, and cover with foil (leaving a small vent for steam) and cook at 180 degrees C for 2-3 hours (longer OK). If, with either method, the sauce hasn't reduced enough by the end of the cooking time for the pork, transfer to a saucepan and bubble to reduce, stirring as attentively as you would a custard, until you get the volume and thickness you want.

Substituting fresh sage leaves for the bay leaves will give a different riff on the flavours. Don't forget to eat the softened pieces of lemon zest.

And the wines:
- a little Quarry Hill 09 sauvignon blanc to sip while cooking
- then on to a lovely but way-too-young Rockfords 2007 riesling
- and then with dinner, riesling plus a switch to a 2006 Donny Goodmac Pyrenees shiraz.

This would also work well with an honest Chianti Classico, or Australian sangiovese.

The sides were jerusalem artichokes roasted in butter, pork fat and rosemary, a dish of 3step beets, and a green salad. For 3step beets: boil whole beets until just giving through the middle, cool in pan, add sufficient salt and vinegar to form a brine, leave in brine for three days, drain, top, tail, quarter, then roast the wedges in butter and salt (some marjoram is an option too) and serve hot.

Both the riesling and the shiraz matched well with the pork and sauce. The shiraz had an edge with the jerusalem artichokes and the 3step beets.

Naming Australian wines from Italian and 'alternative' varieties

I've been thinking a bit about the options for choosing names of wines made in Australia from Italian or other 'alternative' varieties. Pizzini have had a bet each way. Their base wine is labelled for the variety - Pizzini Sangiovese 2008, etc - whereas the top tier sangiovese gets a flash name from an Italian word - Rubacuori (which means heartbreaker).

The Castagna sangiovese has been named La Chiave (key) and later Un Segreto for his 'secret' Super-Beechworth blend of sangiovese and syrah.

Coriole call their basic sangiovese by the name of the variety, Contour 4 as the name for their shiraz-sangiovese blend, and then flag the 'Brunello clone' as the label for that clonal selection wine.

This coming year, I'll hopefully have the first pick and make from the 2006 plantings of tempranillo planted at Quarry Hill (the sagrantino and sangiovese are further off). One option is to label it as tempranillo, another is to give it a name with a Spanish flavour. Pronouncing the Spanish word for quarry, which is 'cantera' in an Australian accent would certainly be a point of distinction...

Underneath these decisions are perhaps some other choices: are these wines Australian wines with some kinds of local distinctiveness (and therefore perhaps should have a local name), or is the Italian or Spanish connection (whether intended to be imitative or not) significant enough to warrant a word or phrase from that language? A veer into the piss-elegant could be all too easy here, but perhaps using a foreign word tongue-in-cheek is the most Australian thing to do?

Pizzini Sangiovese 2008

To me, there is a kind of triangle of styles with sangiovese in Australia. There is Coriole's well-made and well-marketed sangiovese from McLaren Vale, priced at under $20 rrp a bottle. There is the small-volume and high quality boutique sangiovese from Castagna in Beechworth, in the over $50 rrp bracket.

At the third point in this triangle is Pizzini, with their entry level sangiovese in the $25-$30 price range. Pizzini also do a super-premium Rubacuori version of their sangiovese at a super-premium price.

In the past, I have enjoyed vintages of the basic Pizzini sangiovese, but have never quite been convinced that it offers good value for money compared to the Coriole basic wine. With the 2008 Pizzini release, from a challenging King Valley vintage, I think I am changing my mind.

The wine opens attractively, with bright red fruits to smell. The fruit has real depth of flavour, especially through the somewhat sweet mid-palate. The acid and tannin profiles are varietal and settled, as is the oak presence. The fruit built in weight and length on the second night. For $27 a bottle, this is Australian sangiovese of genuine interest.

On the first night, this matched well with a 1kg t-bone steak done in bistecca alla fiorentina style. As the fruit put on weight for night two, the wine then matched well with a wet-roast of organic lamb leg, borlotti beans and rosemary.

Primo Estate Moda 1997

If pressed, I would probably pick the Primo Estate Moda part 'amarone' as my favourite Australian 'Italian' wine. The wine is mainly cabernet sauvignon, with some merlot blended in. The distinctive, 'Italianate' feature of the wine is the rack-drying of a portion of the grapes, in the method of amarone. The result is a wine built for ageing, developing attractive leathery and sometimes tarry characters after ten years. To my palate, the drying process modifies the cabernet tannins, adding an additional bittersweet character, somewhat like bitter chocolate.

The 1997 Moda is 90% cabernet sauvignon from McLaren Vale, with 10% Merlot from both Coonawarra and McLaren Vale. It opens up with bitter cocoa, resolved cabernet fruit, a hint of coffee and an attractive depth of fine, drying tannins. On the showing of this bottle, the wine will continue to develop over the next three years (though this had a perfect cork).

I Frati, Ca Dei Frati, Lugana 2008

Tasted blind, this offered some interesting richness of texture and palate weight. As well as lemon rind and a refreshing crunch of acid, there is something spicy going on as well. At the time, I wondered if this was 100% dry. It had some of the characteristics of a richer riesling, and some of what I thought reminded me of grechetto.

Hailing from Lombardy, this is Ca Dei Frati's top white wine. Four generations of the Dal Cero family have worked the estate since it was purchased in 1940, the estate is focussed on lugana (a type of trebbiano). This did not show that well for me in this tasting, but suspect with air and over a lengthier time (like dinner or a long lunch) would have been more attractive. Definitely not a bland version of trebbiano, much of this went through malolactic ferment before spending months in tank on lees, then going from steel to bottle. It would go well with a seafood salad.