Australian prosecco: Brown Brothers upsets Italians

In a recent post on his blog Vino al vino, Franco Ziliani writes about Australian prosecco and Italian products being 'copied' overseas. At 26 comments and counting, a furore has ensued over what the Italians perceive as another episode in their beloved enogastronomic products being imitated around the world.

The more sensitive issue for Italians is not that overseas sources are copying their products, but that Italians themselves are incapable of properly protecting and promoting their culture and quality produce.

My take? Prosecco is a type of grape, so it is permissable that it be used in other wine making regions, Italy or overseas, and that it be given that name. For example, when, in Australia and the rest of the world, you could no longer say "Champagne", we were talking about a regional name and all the tradition and culture that lies behind that wine making technique. That does not mean we can no longer write "chardonnay" on a bottle of sparkling wine, it being the grape variety most used in that style of wine.

In addition, the Italians need to first learn to appreciate their own produce. Prosecco is one of the most bastardised words in wine in Italy, much like spumante, and many Italians drink "prosecco" as an aperitif without knowing what it is, whether that's what's really in the glass and whether it's of quality or not.

As pointed out in many of the comments on Vino al vino, the Italians need to devise a comprehensive system of protecting and promoting their own products. As one reader says, a wine tasting once a year of authentic Italian wine at the embassy in the US (and in any other country for that matter), does not constitute a concerted PR effort in the face of the many imitation Italian products that exist.

The argument is far more complex than I have been able to outline here, but it will be interesting to see if it becomes another example of intellectual property in the wine making world. For my part, I would be interested in trying the Brown Brothers prosecco, if only to taste an expression of this wine from another part of the world. That I would favour it over a good Italian prosecco from Valdobbiadene for all its tradition, culture and quality is another debate.

I mentioned in a recent post that Italy's nebbiolo grape variety is...well, pure bliss. I love nebbiolo, and I'm not afraid to say it. If it's nebbiolo aged in barrique, better again. I like to chew my wines and unfortunately at my sommelier course, our nebbiolo tasting is likely over as we have already looked at both Piedmont and Lombardy, which covers the two Italian regions that produce nebbiolo.

The first nebbiolo we tasted was a grand Barolo from Pio Cesare, from the 2003 vintage. This was a hot vintage in Italy, and produces wines that are perhaps less classic in style, though I appreciated this Barolo for its complexity. There was an ocean of perfumes, with plenty of varied spice dominating the nose.

The second nebbiolo was from the Valtellina, which can be considered the poor cousin of Barolo, though I like to think of it as great nebbiolo at more affordable prices. The Valtellina is home away from home for me, and it its, and my, hear, is nebbiolo. We tasted a sforzato, which is about as prestigious as you can get around these parts.

It was a Triacca, San Domenico sforzato, vintage 2003, and again it displayed an array of spices, though less vanilla than the Barolo. There were complex balsamic notes, leather and underbrush aspects, and the tannins were perfect to balance the 14.5% alcohol. Sforzato is made through a process of drying grapes, called appassimento, which is the same as the wine making of Amarone, to produce high alchol wines.

So, all in all I am satisfied with our tasting so far! I am having a visit home to Australia at Christmas and though it's not necessarily a wine for a hot summer's evening, I'll be keen to try some Australian nebbiolo when home.

Last week's wine of the week from Wine Pages, was a Trentham Estate La famiglia nebbiolo, from NSW. I'll leave aside what I think is becoming a stubborn insistence on screw cap in Australian wines (and I'd hesitate to describe nebbiolo as light-bodied), and say that the wine is intriguing all the same. It's matured for 18 months in French oak, so I'd expect some lovely soft oak characteristics. At this stage, I'd buy the wine for its beautiful label.

In addition, Franco Ziliani's WineWebNews from the Italian Association of Sommeliers celebrates this Australian wine industry experimentation with a post on Coriole's nebbiolo rose. That an Australian nebbiolo rose can make it to Italy with some positive news is a big step - the convincing is in the drinking. This is in addition to more well-known and successful efforts in Italian grape varieties from Pizzini.

So, could my love of nebbiolo be met on Australian shores too? Only time and plenty of tasting will tell...

Photo | Flickr

International distributors of Australian wine

I have unfortunately discovered that my conundrum of how to find a good distributor Australian wine in Italy, with a respectable range is an ongoing one.

To give you an example, I’ll refer to some brief research I did yesterday on prices of Penfolds Bin 707, from the 90’s vintages. An email came through from British wine merchant Seckfords with some lots of 1993, 1994 and 1997 (I believe I recall) Penfolds Bin 707.

The lots, of six bottles, were available at a price of 50 pounds a bottle which isn’t a bad price. When buying from UK wine merchants most wines are offered duty paid meaning EU taxes are already included in the price, you don’t require any import numbers, no customs is to be paid on EU delivery and your only extra costs are delivery.

The 50 pounds turns out to be quite a reasonable price, but to come to this conclusion some investigation needed to occur. First of all I hopped onto the Robert Parker website to look at some vintage notes.

I’m not so interested in the points system, but I often find that Australian vintage notes are scarce and sometimes the site can be helpful on this front. It turns out that according to the site, the 1994 is the best bet for quality at this stage.

I then figured that there wouldn’t be much point in buying in the UK, if Italy had better availability, at comparable prices without the worry of organising a shipment.

I cannot, in all honesty, seriously comment on Austrade’s work in representing the interests of the Australian wine industry in Italy, so suffice to say they have a vino australiano website that lists the distributors of Australian wine in Italy.

Penfolds has an exclusive distributor in Italy, called Meregalli, who is conveniently holding a wine tasting day in Monza on Monday September 29. Despite the fact I’m supposed to be working that afternoon, I will endeavour to go.

But now price of a Bin 707 through Meregalli is listed, and there's no way of knowing whether they're a wholesaler or whether they also sell to the public.

So I also had a look at Peck, who sells at a whopping 143 euros for the 1998 vintage, and Enoteca Ronchi, who was reasonable enough at 126 euros for the 1993 vintage (over the hill?) and the 1997. The hunt continues...

Australian wine a winner in Italy (at least in my house)

Well they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but I’m wondering if a flash bottle of wine isn’t better. My boyfriend was very impressed with the "gluggability" of our Penfold’s Koonunga Hill shiraz cabernet and had himself a second and third (!) glass.

I am proud to say the Heineken was put back in the fridge. And I thoroughly enjoyed that teeth staining, full Aussie red for a change. Probably not something I would always drink as I think my taste, like many I think, is changing slightly and I now enjoy an elegant wine, particularly in the heat we’re having in Italy in the moment.

Buying this bottle in Italy though, I was also able to appreciate the 2001 vintage. I find when I’m here mostly I can only get hold of recent vintages, if not the latest, and this is not always a good thing when we’re talking nebbiolo. One bad Australian habit is, in my opinion, drinking our wines too young. Maybe it’s just a lack of patience when ripping the cork out of a bottle. But the patient will be rewarded!

Anyway, here’s to Koonunga Hill and taking over the world. I only need to find the funds to support my now more expensive habit.