It’s easy to get a fixed idea in your head about wine-producing nations that doesn’t actually do them any favours. Many people still think of Australia, for example, as capable only of producing oaky chardonnays or big, jammy reds. Or that Chile is fine for party wine, but not if you want to take an interesting bottle round to a friend’s for dinner.
In fact, you may be surprised at just how much experimentation is going on in both countries right now, as was brought home to me at two recent tastings. Chile, which is widely regarded as the most conservative of Latin American producer countries, held its annual tasting alongside its arch rival Argentina in a colourful “mercado” in Spitalfields, rather than in one of the more imposing venues traditionally favoured by wine merchants and promotional bodies.
One section of the Chile tasting was given over to “pioneering starts”, namely uncommon grape varieties and experimental wines. Frustratingly, many are not yet available, but of those that are, I was especially taken by De Martino’s exuberant, juicy, beaujolais-like Gallardia Cinsault 2014 (£12.50 Berry Bros & Rudd; 13%), from the country’s exciting Itata region. The exotic, peachy Vieja Tinajes Muscat 2014 (£12.78 Les Caves de Pyrène; 13% abv), which is aged in amphorae, is exciting, too. Caliterra’s Dstnto 2014 (£12.70 The Whalley Wine Shop; 14% abv), a vibrant blend of malbec, petit verdot and carignan, will appeal if you like malbec; the name’s shorthand for “different”. And look out for pais, once Chile’s most widely planted grape and I reckon the one to watch in 2016.
Meanwhile, an Australian outfit called 21st Century Vino is promoting producers who make wines from Italian varieties such as aglianico, montepulciano and nero d’avola. They argue that Australia has more in common, culturally and climatically, with Italy than with Bordeaux or Burgundy, and that grape varieties that thrive in southern Italy may be better at standing up to Australia’s summer heat. Again, my top picks at the tasting haven’t yet hit the shelves (please, someone, anyone, import Chalmers wines from Heathcote, Victoria); but in the meantime, dip a toe in the water with Tscharke’s (pronounced Sharky) sexy, Barossa-made The Master Montepulciano 2012 (£14.99 The Imperial Wine Company, Bungay; 14% abv). And yes, before you point it out, wines in this style would be cheaper if they were made in Italy, but that’s not the point. They wouldn’t taste the same, and it’s never less than fascinating to explore the effect of terroir.
