Last container of 2010 Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo now in Oz….

For me, going to Vinitaly and Italy is very important every year as it is about opportunity. It opens the door to opportunity. The opportunity to meet new people, new wineries and new opportunities.

Four years ago I had the opportunity to meet Valentino Sciotti. Out of all the people I have met in the wine industry in Australia and Italy, Valentino is someone who sticks out for always being one step ahead. One step ahead when he decided to work in Basilicata. One step ahead with the quality of wine and pricing of such wines like Gran Sasso.

After only a small amount of discussion,  we decided to start small collaboration in Australia with a brand called Grand Sasso focusing on indigenous varities from their group. My first order was conservative. 350 dozen for the the 2008 Montepulciano: and I thought that was a good start.

From 350 dozen, my next order was for 700 dozen. Then it was a full container. Then it was two containers. Then it was planned ongoing production until the vintage finished…

One of the Gran Sasso vineyards in Abruzzo.

Then we didn’t know how the reaction would be when we changed vintage to 2009. Needless to say, nothing changed.

Demand for the 2010 has been unbelievable. So much so that we could have filled out warehouses a hundred times over and still not have enough stocks. And talking about stocks, we have now just received our last container of the 2010 vintage.

Our first container of the 2011 Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo will leave Italy once the country opens up again after the summer closure. The last remaining stocks of the 2010 should finish in the Australian market around the end of October.

Current Reviews on the 2010 Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo:

Since it was first shipped to Australia a few years ago this has been of the great bargains, but this latest vintage is extra good; gorgeous, black, glossy fruit but savoury and vinous. Yum. Max Allen in Gourmet Traveller June 2012.

It makes sense to eat Australian game. Besides, emi is delicous. Its fillets are richly flavoured and dark red even when chargrilled. The equally dark and full flavoured Montepulciano d’Abruzzo has enough tangy acidity to cut through the meat’s richness. This absolute bargain from Gran Sasso is smart fresh and vibrant, with blackberry, brambleberry fruit but very much a savoury wine with spice, sage, a hint of menthol and an appealing woodsy character. Jane Faulkner, The Saturday Age.

…Many of the local versions (of Montelpuciano) produced have been exciting, deep and savoury from First Drop in the Adelaide Hills; powerful and robust from Tscharke in the Barossa; rich and juicy from new biodynamic Riverland producer Whistling Kite – and all well over $20.

By comparison, the 2010 Gran Sasso Montelpulciano d’Abruzzo is a wine of similar quality for less than half the price: gorgeous, slink black purple fruit but grippy, serious vinosity, too, making it delicious with food. Max Allen, The Weekend Australian

This is a hot-selling wine around some of Melbourne’s better independent wine shops, and for good reason – you get a lot of wine for your money. There’s some complexity to the flavours of plum, blackberry, liquorice, spice, dried herbs and nuts, but it’s the fine, drying tannins and structure that make it stand out from the crowd. Acidity is fresh and food-friendly, it has a good mouthfeel and the rich finish has good length and some nice savoury notes.Ben Thomas, The Weekly Review 17th May 2012

Yes, that’s right, it’s now sealed with a screwcap. Importer: Mondo Imports

I put this under the nose of my wife, who, it has to be said, is one of the fussiest wine drinkers around, and she liked it immediately. That’s an achievement in itself, and then I told her the price. Amazement. Anyway, I gave it a quick run before dinner formally and with dinner informally (I took off my tasting bow tie) and it impressed me twice.

Blood plum, nuts, licorice and some chocolate on a middle weight palate that delivers plenty of flavour along with attractive chewiness and freshness. The length is particularly impressive and closes with a desirable Italianate bitterness, like chicory or similar. Is it the best release of Gran Sasso to date? I suspect so. I defy you to find a more interesting, savoury wine with modest alcohol and food friendliness at the price. If you do, please let me know. It’s ever so slightly better than a 90 point wine, so I’m rounding up. Drink : 2012 – 2016 $10.99 91 points Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

Not a bad day when….

Jane Faulkner in The Age, Saturday 21st April.

You wake up and find one of the wines you import written up in two national newspapers by two of Australia’s leading wine journalists (Jane Faulkner and Max Allen). Not that Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo needs anymore encouragement to sell. 40,000 bottles are next in the next few weeks with more following early June.

Max Allen in The Australian, Saturday 21st April.

It is a wine that, for the money, is almost laughable. It makes what we do with @mondoimports so rewarding to be able find wines like this and for these wines to gain so much recoginition.

 

Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2010: the amazing story of Gran Sasso continues….

In February 1 this year we launched the new vintage 2010 Gran Sasso Montepulicano d’Abruzzo. As a label in Australia, Gran Sasso is an amazing story.

We started with the 2008 vintage and didn’t really know how this wine would go in Australia. Sure it was a fantastic wine, but most people in Oz had never heard of Montepulciano, didn’t know where Abruzzo was situated in Italy and because they could not match a variety to the name, would struggle to pick up the wine and buy it.

Well how wrong was I. Our initial order was placed and 350 dozen landed in Australia. We loved the wine in Italy but sometimes loving a wine in Italy and selling it in Australia can be like packing to go to the beach in Siberia. It just doesn’t work. However, once the wine arrived and I tried it we knew we had more than a $10-12 wine on our hands.

We sent samples out to some of Australia’s leading wine scribes (Jane Faulkner, Campbell Mattinson, Gary Walsh, etc) and to say they were bowled over by the quality of the wine was an understatement. Once reviews were out and articles written the response from the public was unbelievable.

What stock we had in Australia quickly sold out after an article about the wine in The Saturday Age by Jane Faulkner. We quickly ordered a full container and within day’s pre-orders for this wine meant the Gran Sasso Montepulicano 2008 that was on this container were already sold. It was the same story with the next container, and the next container. And then we were ordering two containers at a time to keep up with demand.

For nearly every decent wine merchant in Australia, the response they had to this wine was unprecedented and for most it was by far their biggest selling imported wine. When the 2008 vintage had sold out, over 100,000 bottles had been imported into Australia from Italy. Not bad when our initial order was 350 dozen.

The 2009 was a fantastic follow up and this was the vintage which was embraced by restaurants in Victoria and NSW. Go to many Italian restaurants in Melbourne, and you will no doubt find Gran Sasso Montepulicano available by the glass.

 

We landed the 2010 vintage in our warehouses in late December before the 1^st of February release date. I had tried the wine in Abruzzo and it looked good. When I tried a bottle the day the container landed, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. For a wine that retails for $10-12 dollars, the length and complexity it pretty amazing, and it seems that the amazing story of Gran Sasso continues.

A string of fantastic reviews for the 2010 has meant that the 10,000 plus bottles we have had in Oz are already gone. Another 40,000 bottles are due in April and May and who knows what will happen in June and July?

Whatever happens, it is so pleasing to see a wine that does not have an international variety on the label but is based on a native variety grown in it’s region of origin be so accepted in Australia. Maybe without Gran Sasso we would not have had the courage to import so many indigenous varieties from the south of Italy and this is something that I will always remember. Gran Sasso Montepulciano d’Abruzzo: the wine that opened my eyes to importing.