Month: March 2026

2015 Guido Platinetti Ghemme Vigna Ronco Al Maso

Nebbiolo from the DOCG of Ghemme up in Alto Piemonte still seems a good buy in times of escalating prices in Barolo and Barbaresco. Didn’t realise Ghemme has the lofty DOCG and I’ve put the producer’s given name first rather than the traditional Italian family name first as it appears on the label. Wasn’t sure this was a formality until enjoying the excellent Montebalno on the tele when Luca Zingaretti always introduced his character, ‘Montebalno Salvo sono’. Italy still seems to hang on to odd formalities. Anyway, what’s in the glass? Rich and deep scents of cherries, raspberries, mint and other herbs in short. Clean and still some mountain freshness. The herbiness is sort of like those, odd to some, Italian digestive drinks. Compared to a heavy metal Barolo recently, full of power and thumping bass, this has ribbons of fine, just chewy tannin and a lightness of beautifully ripe acidity. So enjoyable to drink. Acidity is so very important in wine.

13.5% alcohol. Cork. $54 at auction, RRP $85, makes up for some less successful sink bound bids.

2020 Prinz Hallgartener Jungfer Rheingau Riesling Trocken GG

The only bit of Germany’s vineyards I’ve explored is the very pretty riverside Rheingau. Happily there’s lots of dry Rieslings to be tried from what seems to be a lot of quality minded producers. It’s also very easy to explore by train from sky scraping towered and bankered Frankfurt. German wine labelling is still not entirely clear in my old brain but the back label says VDP Grosse Lage which I think means the vineyard is defined as being top of the quality pyramid under wine law and can be further loosely defined as Grosses Gerwachs meaning dry wine from such Grand Cru sites. Should be good then. Perfumes of white peach and citrus with a dab of vanilla bean. It’s all a bit reserved and controlled by that word…mineral..freshness and some sweet green herbiness. Really powerful as it glides on fruit sweetness and a glycerol slide of tightly bound mouth watering acidity and a touch of alcohol warmth. One of those Rieslings that’s either got a touch of fruit sugar or the fruits so dense it seems sweet, beyond me and no bad thing. Just balancing itself adroitly. Opened at the same time as a really good Eden Valley local which was rich in developed flavour with a broad burst of wide acidity. So different to the linear brightness of this Jungfer tingle, so bound into the whole. There’s some Rolls Royce power in this GG top of the range. Quite different to the Toyota reliability of a good Eden Valley to stretch a dubious metaphor.

13% alcohol, it’s ripe. Cork lottery. Thanks to a generous dinner companion.

96 points.

2022 Allegrini Valpolicella

Well over thirty years ago when I first realised Italy made some very interesting and tasty wine, there were only a few DOCs and even less DOCGs available and not many breakaway Vini di Tavola purposely ignoring the rules. Simpler times that made learning easier, particularly as there were only a few producers from each of the better known DOCs whose bottles had something a bit extra. Valpol, as we knew it, had perhaps only two labels that consistently excited this novice, Allegrini and the great Quintarelli whose Classico is now over $250 a bottle in Australia. When this came up at auction, I thought it would be fun for old times’ sake to have a bid. Nobody else was interested which is maybe indicative of Valpol’s fashionability? Well, I’m happy to say it maybe old fashioned but Allegrini’s version is still delicious in that gentle and mouth watering way I remember it. Nicely clean and perfumed with red cherry fruit and that dark chocolate accented earthiness that marks the Verona bit of the Veneto for me. Barely medium bodied, it’s that deliciously fine acidity and talc powdery tannins that can make Valpolicella special. There’s a gentle balance of fruit and succulent texture that seems to mark Corvina from those huge canopies of vines. It’s far from a blockbuster wine of dramatic impact and high scores but it’s delicious and true to its place. Nice trip down a cobwebbed memory lane.

13% alcohol. Screw cap, good idea. $28 auction.

92 points. But much more about place and texture than simple numbers.