Session 26 - Lavora Italiano

Silvio Berlusconi, Enzo Ferarri, Donatella Versace, Roberto Baggio - Italy has given the world many cultural and style icons, it has also given many a taste for ‘la dolce vita' through an image of a cosmopolitan lifestyle projected around the world, along with its cuisine and wine.

Cuisine is a rather limiting way of referring to what in reality are a diverse range of regional and sub-regional cuisines, and closely associated with that are regional wine styles, with grape varieties often intrinsically linked to a region and associated produce and dishes.

Swirl, Sniff, Spit is opting to look at a range of varieties of Italian origin that have settled here in Australia. Predominantly the examples we have selected are sourced from McLaren Vale, a region with a strong links to Italian migration and settlement. By no means is this an exhaustive look of 'Italian' varieties, but it's a damn good start.

Bracket 1 – Crisp Whites
Beach Road Greco 2011 Twitter n/a
Primo & Co The Venetian Garganega 2012 @PrimoEstate

Bracket 2 – Textural Feeling
Oliver's Taranga Small Batch Fiano 2013 @OliversTaranga
Oliver's Taranga Small Batch Vermentino 2013 @OliversTaranga
Dowie Doole Vermentino 2013 @DowieDooleWines

Bracket 3 – A Little Sweet One
Coriole Barbera 2012 @Coriole
Vigna Bottin Barbera 2006 Twitter n/a

Bracket 4 – “Forgive me Father, for I have Zinned’
Coriole Sangiovese 2010 @Coriole
La Curio 'Original Zin' Primitivo 2010 Twitter n/a

Bracket 5 – Not Quite the Full ‘Monty’
Waywood Wines Montepulciano 2012 @WaywoodWines
Hand Crafted by Geoff Hardy Aglianico 2011 @HCByGeoffHardy

Bracket 6 – Tannic beauts that end in ‘o’ and probably “Oooooh…”
Oliver's Taranga Sagrantino 2010 @OliversTaranga
Kangarilla Road Terzetto 2010 @Kangarilla

Special Event - 'Side Projects' with Steve Flamsteed & Dave Mackintosh

Swirl Sniff Spit is excited to bring you the opportunity to spend an evening with Steve Flamsteed and Dave Mackintosh and some seriously good wine.

Steve and Dave met while making wine together at Giant Steps and Innocent Bystander in the Yarra Valley, but along with other leading winemakers who work under the collective 'Side Projects', they're creating edgy, dynamic, non-interventionist wines -  together with their 'Salo' label and Dave's own, 'Ar Fion'. 

Moving away from wines produced for mainstream audiences, these winemaking side projects allow exploration of ideas, techniques and expressions resulting in new and exciting wines for a more tightly focused audience.

This tasting will take an in depth look at their Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay and Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah over multiple vintages along with skin contact wines, benchmark wines that inspire their winemaking and a couple of dark horses from other winemaker's side projects - wines from Bill Downie and Dave Bicknell that you won't see anywhere else. 

Spend an evening exploring this exciting group of wines with Steve and Dave as our guides.

When: Tuesday July 30, 6pm for 6:30pm

Where: 1889 Enoteca, 10 - 12 Logan Road, Woolloongabba

How: Register online (ticketed event) at www.swirlsniffspitsalo.eventbrite.com.au

Bracket 1 - Salo Chardonnay 

2008 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 

2009 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 

2010 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 

2011 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 

2012 Salo Yarra Valley Chardonnay 

Bracket 2 - Side Project Skin Contact Whites and Inspiration

2012 Smokestack Lightning Pinot Grigio by Ar Fion (Yarra Valley) 

2012 Breakfast Wine by Patrick Sullivan (Yarra Valley)

2005 Gravner Ribollo (Fruili, Italy)

Bracket 3 - Side Project Yarra Valley Pinot and Inspiration

2012 Ar Fion Pinot Noir 

2011 BicknellFC Pinot Noir by Dave Bicknell

2004 William Downie Pinot Noir 

Bracket 4 - Salo Syrah and Inspiration

2010 Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah  

2011 Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah  

2012 Salo Hawkes Bay Syrah  

2006 Bilancia 'La Collina' Hawkes Bay Syrah

Our venue for this event will be the beautiful and intimate 1889 Enoteca cellar room. 

Our hosts at 1889 Enoteca have put together a special menu for the event and guests will have the option to order meals which will be served during the tasting.